Loving You Is Like A Fairy Tale, Let's Start With Chapter One
by FallenOutTheWindow
Summary: Forty one-shots in forty days. Each one connecting and centred around our favourite team. Mostly Neric centred but there will be a healthy does of Densi themed chapters, all the team will feature at some point...
1. Subtle

**A/N: So, halfway through writing part two of _Like A Date_ one of my old writing buddies challenged me to write a one-shot a day for any fandom for a full month. Now, I've already done that so I tried to push myself a little further this time. I went out and found forty prompts and tweaked them a little to fit the NCIS:LA characters. **

**Most of these will heavily feature Nell and Eric because they're adorable and there simply isn't enough love for these two. I do, however, have a few ****Densi chapters planned and a couple of team-fics. All the chapters are related, no 'alternate universe/time lines' or anything of the sort here. **

**Anyway, without further ado, I sincerely hope you enjoy reading these as much as I have enjoyed writing them... **

**Disclaimer: I shall say this once and once only, I do not now, nor will I ever likely, own NCIS: Los Angeles. Okay? **

* * *

**1 - Subtle **

_**They banter back and forth all the time; however Hetty can read the things that remain unsaid. **_

Over the years Henrietta Lange had picked up many vital skills during her time in the field. She knew how to make a bomb out of household objects, when the best time to give up on negotiations and pull out her gun. She'd mastered several martial art forms and both taken and saved more lives than she was willing to count.

It was her time in politics that had refined certain abilities such as how to answer a question without saying anything, how to remain intentionally vague without appearing so and how to read between the lines.

On the quiet days, days such as today, when there were no pressing issues to concern her agent with or deaths to avenge, that Hetty would sit back sipping the latest exotic tea that an old friend had sent her and watch her team.

"I'm just saying, maybe we could just watch the game instead of going running again," Callen called across the desk area to his partner.

"Uh-huh, you sure it's not because you can't keep up, G?"

"I didn't say that. I just said maybe we could spend time bonding or something."

"You want to 'bond'," Sam mocked, tilting his head and smirking, "Mr 'Keeps-It-All-To-Himself' wants to bond? Okay, what should we talk about?"

"You know what? Forget it." Raising his hands in defeat, Callen returned to the half-finished report he was writing on the laptop.

"Actually, I was kind looking forward to watching this. Was gonna make some popcorn, you want some Kens?" Deeks interrupted, perched on the corner of Callen's desk until said agent threw his stapler at the detective.

Moving quickly and catching the flying object, Deeks barely paused for breath before continuing, "Oh. Wow, real nice. I was just trying to encourage you to open up, let all that aggression and pent-up emotion."

"If you're not careful, I'm going to release 'that aggression' on you." Callen warned.

"Kensi, little help here?"

Pushing her chair away from her desk and spinning the seat to look up at her partner, Kensi smiled, "Actually, I have a better idea, why don't we do something fun for all of us?"

Picking up on the glint in her eyes and the way Deeks immediately seemed to back up, Sam decided to join in, "I know that face, I like this idea already."

"Wait, what?" Deeks said, head moving from staring at Kensi and Sam.

"I'm with you two, let's do it." Callen agreed.

"Guys, what are we doing?" Deeks asked, moving back from the three agents.

Stopping to watch the team, Eric looked at Nell who moved the folders she was carrying in her arms and spoke up, "Erm guys?"

"What're you doing?" Eric finished for the younger analyst who was trying to gesture to the team. Pausing to take some of the files from his own partner he looked up at the agents who had cornered Deeks.

Knowing the team as well as he did, Eric understood almost immediately what the agents were planning after seeing the smile on Kensi's face. "Come on guys, that's just cruel!"

"What's cruel? Eric, what are they doing?" Deeks called out, trying to watch both the team and where he was going.

"You wanna tie him up G?" Sam asked as he caught hold of the detectives' arms.

"Sure, we'll let Kensi do the rest."

"What's Kensi going to do? Kens!" Deeks called seeing his partner turn around to face Nell and Eric.

"Nell, grab the scissors," Kensi told her as both Sam and Callen forced Deeks down into his chair.

Confused at the request the young analyst looked up and the technical operator who took pity on her and decided to explain.

"They're going to cut his hair." Eric announced, not even fazed by the situation and ignoring Deeks crying out how unfair everything was and that Hetty would save him.

That was until the operations manager herself came over to the group holding a pair of oversized scissors.

"Quite the opposite, Mr Deeks, I believe a hair cut would be an excellent idea." Over the years, if Henrietta Lange had learnt anything then it was that things are not always quite how they appear. Watching her liaison officer shrink back against the chair as she approached, crying out that he would do anything, _anything,_ for her to not cut his precious long locks Hetty couldn't hold in the laugh any longer.

Sam and Callen released Deeks who jumped out of and behind the chair faster than she had ever seen him move while simultaneously glaring and smiling at his partner who simply shrugged and joined in with the laughter.

Yes, her team bickered like children and drove each other, and herself on occasions, 'up the walls' so to speak but Hetty could read between the lines.

* * *

**A/N2: So, should I give up now? Or should I carry on?**

**Let me know in a review!**


	2. Realization

**A/N: Because I'm feeling kind and to get the ball rolling on this, I decided to upload two chapters today. Aren't you a lucky bunch? **

**I should clarify now that this is set in OPS, Hetty and Nell are watching this on the big screen and everything in italics is what Nell and Hetty are hearing in over the comms...**

* * *

**2 - Realization.**

_**The moment she realized she couldn't lose him was the moment she did. **_

_"Whoa, I don't know what you're talking about!" _

_"Yes you do! You killed him, all of you!" _

Watching from OPS, Nell stood there, shaking, staring at the image on the screen and wondering where everything went so wrong.

It was supposed to be a simple job, get into the building, release the hostages, and take down the bad guy. Problem one came in the form of Arnold Price, the brother of a highly decorated Marine who had been killed by friendly fire; Price was currently holding 29 of his employees hostage and seemed to be one step ahead of both Nell and Eric in terms of hacking into the security systems at Price industry.

That was why Eric had volunteered.

Unwilling to let Nell go out, especially after seeing her injuries from the last mission, Eric had signed himself up to leave OPS and tap into their systems directly from the floor below Price and the hostages. Unfortunately, just as Eric managed to hack into the system and open the doors Arnold had come flying into the room, waving his gun in Eric's direction and blaming the technical operator for the death of his brother.

_"Just put the gun down, Arnold! We had nothing to do with this."_

Nell could hear Kensi and Deeks trying to rationalise with Price but all she could focus on was Eric who seemed as motionless as she felt.

_"Please, dude, put it down." _Eric begged, swallowing hard.

_"Why should I? It's your fault he's dead!" _Price screamed, taking another step closer to Eric.

_"I swear, I didn't do anything. I'm sorry he's gone but-" _

_"You're 'sorry'!" _Price shouted, interrupting the technical operator, _"You will be." _

For a moment, time seemed to stand still.

Eric tore his eyes away from the barrel of the gun in his face, glancing up to the security camera the Nell was watching the whole event through.

Callen and Sam burst through the backdoor and Price turned to face them.

Eric turned around, ready to run out of the room.

Price saw Eric trying to leave and fired.

Gunshots rang out all around the room as Price fell to the floor.

Kensi, being the closest, ran over to Eric, stepping over Price and turned the fallen operative over.

Deeks called for an ambulance over the comms. Hetty told him it would be there momentarily.

_"Is he__..." _Eric tried to ask before Callen told him to take it easy.

_"He's dead, we got him." _Sam answered the fallen man's question, laying his hand on Eric's shoulder before glancing at Kensi who was using almost all of her body weight to apply pressure to the gunshot wound.

_"Good," _Eric sighed, closing his eyes.

_"Eric, stay with us." _

_"Come on, man." _

_"Eric?" _

"Mr Beale?"

Nell couldn't breathe, refused to breathe until she saw her partner breathing too. All she could do was watch as the agents surrounded Eric; Deeks taking over from Kensi to apply pressure and Callen and Kensi performing CPR while Sam ran into the hallway, calling for the EMT's.

"Miss Jones?" She heard Hetty ask.

Finally snapping out of whatever trance she had been under, Nell turned to her boss, noticing for the first time the tears rolling across her face.

"Sorry, I, erm. Did you say something?" Trying to control her breathing and dry her face the young intelligence analyst suddenly burst into motion, checking monitors for something she wasn't sure she'd find.

A sign that Eric would be okay.

It was no secret that both Nell and Eric were close, over the years the two had become good friends but it was at that moment, seeing her partner bleeding out on the floor, that Nell knew what she felt for Eric went beyond worry and care for a partner.

Unaware of her surroundings, Nell listened over the comms for what was happening.

She listened as Kensi got in the ambulance and told her everything she could remember of Eric's medical history until she heard the dreaded monotone beep from the background of Kensi's comms.

No more Oreos or late night video games.

No more weekends just hanging out at the beach.

No more chances to tell him how she felt.

Eric was flat lining.

And then everything faded to black.

The moment she realized she couldn't lose him was the moment she did.

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**A/N2: Okay, maybe that wasn't so kind, please don't hate me! **


	3. Directive

**A/N: Okay, yeah, that second chapter probably wasn't as happy as it could have been but I think that's the most angst we're going to get. **

**Anyway, to make up for it, please accept this perfectly fluffy and happy Densi chapter. Enjoy! **

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**3 - Directive**

_**His note said not to come after him but she couldn't help trying.**_

_Didn't want to wake you, stay right there. _

_Seriously, don't even more to pee. _

_I'll be back soon! _

_- Deeks_

It was by far one of the more normal notes that Deeks had left her but she was still curious.

Kensi had been back from Afghanistan for a couple of months and since her return she'd fallen into some strange sort of relationship with her partner. Most nights were spent at his place because of Monty but one of the things that stood out about her 'thing' with Deeks was that since her return he'd been reluctant at best to let her go.

Between the sudden disappearance of her partner and the strangely normal note, Kensi was determined to find out just where Deeks had run off to so early in the morning.

"Hey Monty," She greeted the dog who was currently sprawled out across Deeks' side of the bed, "Want to go find Daddy?"

Being rewarded with a lick and a rapidly wagging tail from the dog, Kensi took this as a yes. Stretching out and grabbing one of Deeks' shirts she began to look around the small apartment. His car was still in the driveway and his surfboards were still neatly stacked up in the garage. His running shoes were still by the door, next to the boots she had thrown down the previous evening much to her partner's dismay.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_"Seriously Kens, would it kill you to just take off your shoes and put them down?" Deeks called out to her from the kitchen. _

_"This is more fun though!" She called back, loosening the boot with her other foot before kicking the shoe into the corridor in the general vicinity of the rest of the shoes. _

_"It's a good job I... am genuinely fond of you, Fern." _

_"Uh-huh. Fond of me?" _

_"Well..." Deeks trailed off seeing the look of his partners face._

_"Shut up, Deeks," she said, kissing him_.

* * *

Opening the front door, Kensi walked out into the small front yard, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun as the watched Monty run out onto the grass and promptly lie down and roll over repeatedly.

"Come on! You couldn't listen to me just this once?" She heard her partner yell from the sidewalk.

"What?"

"I told you not to move."

"Oh, yeah. I was curious."

"That curiosity is going to be the death of you one day," Deeks joked, leaning in to kiss his partner/unofficial girlfriend.

"Don't remind me. What's the box?" She asked, nodding at the cardboard box the detective was carrying.

Whistling for Monty, Deeks walked inside and tried to explain his sudden departure that morning to his partner. "It's for you, open it."

Watching her partner, Kensi walked over to the counter. Carefully peeling back the lid she saw a large cake inside with the words _'Happy Birthday, Fern' _written in icing on the top.

"Deeks, you do know it's not my birthday, right?"

"'Course I do but we missed it." Seeing her puzzled look, he continued, "You were sleeping and I was just waiting for you to wake up when I realized that I don't want to miss anything with you. We didn't get to spend Christmas together but I at least got to talk to you."

Moving from his spot by the fridge, Deeks reached out for his partner, wrapping his arms around her waist and waiting until her arms were resting on his shoulders before continuing.

"I want to celebrate all those stupid things together, birthdays, Christmas, the first time I kissed you, all of it."

"Deeks..."

"Please?"

Smiling up at the man before her, Kensi nodded before leaning in to kiss him.

"So, does that mean we can make our 'thing' official?" Deeks asked, grinning.

"You know, you haven't actually asked me..."

Rolling his eyes and sighing, Deeks let go of his partner and took hold of her hand before going down on one knee.

"Kensi Marie Blye, will you be my girlfriend?"

"I don't know, will you still buy me cake?" She asked, laughing as she pulled Deeks back up to her height and kissing him soundly.

* * *

**A/N2: So, thoughts? **


	4. Zero

**A/N: Look, Nell and Eric are back! And Eric seems perfectly fine... Well that's good. **

**Anyway, I was recently told that I'm far too competitive. Obviously I laughed and challenged said friend to another round of guitar hero... This tournament went on for three hours and the next day, the inspiration for this one-shot appeared!**

**This one's set in the early days of Nell and Eric's friendship, probably around late season 2.**

* * *

**4 - Zero**

_**"Not a chance," she retorted, shoving the plate of cookies away from herself. **_

Four hours ago, Eric suggested they go back to his place as they were leaving Ops. Asked if she'd like to play video games and for whatever reason Nell had said yes.

Three hours ago, Nell had insisted that she'd never played Mario Kart and asked Eric to go easy on her.

Two hours ago, Eric began to realise just how competitive his red-headed partner really was.

Now the pair were sitting upside down on Eric's couch, having decided that playing upright was simply too easy. Empty beer bottle and take-out containers littered the floor as both Nell and Eric threw themselves around trying to win the latest round of Mario Kart on the Wii.

The night had been going pretty well, in between races the two had talked about anything and everything; Eric discovered that Nell was huge Sci-Fi fan, could barely swim and missed her family back home terribly.

"Ha! Take that Jones, another point to me." Eric laughed as he tried to sit himself back up.

"I think you'll still find that I'm winning overall though, Beale. Just letting you catch up to even the playing field," Nell laughed as she swung her legs down and pulled herself up again with far more grace than Eric who was currently half on the couch and half on the floor.

"If you say so," the technical operator laughed, standing up and walking over to the small kitchenette.

Curious as to what her partner was doing, Nell moved to follow the taller man to the kitchen, watching as he rummaged around the cupboards.

Eric had just pulled out a plate when he turned around to find his partner sitting on the worktops, smiling at him.

"What?" He asked, seeing the grin in place.

"Nothing, just wondering what you're doing."

"Finding food. I don't really feel like reheating the Chinese."

"O-kay... Why are you staring at me then?"

"I, um, need to get into that cupboard," he said, gesturing to the cabinet behind her.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Nell asked, almost daring her partner.

Feeling bold from the beer earlier, and if she asked, that's what he'd blame his new-found courage on, Eric placed one hand on her hip and reached behind her. Without taking his eyes away from the intelligence analyst, Eric grabbed what he'd been searching for and closed the cupboard. Savouring the moment of being allowed to invade his partner's space, Eric set his other hand down by Nell's side, watching for her to change her mind about allowing him this close.

Instead of pushing him away though Nell seemed to move backwards on the counter and parted her legs, allowing Eric closer, an opportunity that didn't not pass him by.

"Did you get it?" She asked in a whisper, eyes flitting across his face as the corners of her mouth pulled up into a smile.

"What?"

"What you were searching for, did you get it?"

"Oh, yeah." Finally snapping out of whatever spell Eric had been under he took a step back, raising his hand to show Nell the pack of Oreo's he'd been looking for.

Seeing the cookies in her partners hand, Nell jumped down from the counter, "You set up the next round; I'll get the beers, deal?"

Four games later, all won by Nell, Eric threw his remote on to the couch and pushed the small side dish towards Nell who had decided that placing stakes on each game in the form of Oreo's would make things more exciting.

"What are you doing?" She asked, seeing Eric push his small plate of cookies towards her.

"I'm giving them to you, you win, okay? Supreme Mario Kart winner, the title's yours."

"Really? You're calling it quits already?"

"Yes, now will you accept my forfeit?"

"Not a chance," she retorted, shoving the plate of cookies away from herself. "Pick another game; you're not giving up that easily.

* * *

**A/N2: Any chance of a review? I'd give y'all Oreos in exchange but there'd be too much hassle posting them and I'd more than likely end up eating most of them...**


	5. Shifting

**A/N: Wow, really not sure when Eric regained his confidence but this is FanFic so I can do as I'd like. Seriously though, that's one of the things about the show that really annoys me, Nell was introduced as someone for Eric to interact with and suddenly the writers decided to make him a socially awkward, uber-geek.. It's a good job I'm so in love with the show. **

**Anyway, mini-rant over. I'll let you get on with reading this now, let me know though if you feel the same way about Eric's miraculous personality reboot on the show. **

* * *

**5 - Shifting **

_**She lost her balance as the floor tipped under her, clinging to her partner for support. **_

Ever since Eric had learnt that Nell had not once been surfing, despite living in LA, Eric had made it his mission to teach her. Unfortunately, every time he got close to a lesson with his partner something intervened. The first time it was a call from work, they had made it as far as the beach and had just changed into their wet suits when Hetty called with a case about a disgruntled marine with a fondness for explosives. The next time they tried, Nell had come down with a case of flu which hit Eric the week after. In between work, funerals, a visit from Nell's family, a freak storm, dog-sitting for Deeks and everything else Eric had yet to get Nell out into the ocean.

Most people would take all these interruption as some kind of cosmic sign from the universe to just give up already.

Eric Beale, however, was _not _like most people.

This is how the technical operator found himself outside of his partners small apartment building, pressing the buzzer to her flat repeatedly and trying to balance to the two large coffees and bag of pastries he'd bought.

"Whatever it is, I don't think I care enough. Come back when the sun's up."

Taking his eyes off of the abused button, Eric looked at the small monitor to see a black and white image of Nell rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and not even trying to hide the yawn.

"Good morning, Sunshine!" He replied, laughing at the way she winced at the volume of his voice.

"Not funny, Eric. I'm serious; it's not even morning yet."

"Nell, it's 6 _in the morning._"

"But the sun's not up, so I'm not up."

"I brought coffee..." Eric practically sang, lifting the Styrofoam cups just high enough for his partner to see.

"Fine, I'll leave the door open," he heard his partner call as she walked out of view of the small screen. Moments later the door to the building beeped and opened, allowing the technical operator into the building.

Making quick work of the stairs, ascending the three flights by jumping up the stairs two at a time, Eric pushed on the door to Nell's flat and, finding it open, walked in and started finding plates and cups while trying to ignore the sounds of the shower and the mental image of his partner naked in the next room.

Eric had just finished arranging the selection of pastries on the plate, grouping the most sugary ones together and angling them closer to the door, when Nell came in. Laughing at his partner's obvious choice due to her sweet-tooth, Eric kept quiet, choosing to simply watch the red-head as she poured the coffee out of the Styrofoam cup and into her own mug. She'd explained to him once that it was better that way and they she enjoyed being able to warm her hands on the mug; he'd accepted it as one of her quirks and now found it rather endearing as she moved on to pour his coffee into the dark green mug that he'd claimed as his without even pausing, as if they'd been going around this morning ritual for years.

"Better?" He asked as Nell drank, closing her eyes and relishing in both the much needed caffeine and ridiculous amount of sugar.

He'd never quite understood the extent of Nell's sweet-tooth until they first went on a coffee run together during a slow period at work. While Eric was perfectly happy with his black coffee and the occasional sugar packet Nell had walked in ordering a large mocha with a double espresso shot and three shots of caramel. He'd accidentally picked it up when they got back to the Mission and almost choked after taking a sip. Eric had never under-estimated his partners love of sugar since and had a long running joke with Deeks over whose partner was worse.

"Much," Nell sighed, opening her eyes as she ran her fingers through her still damp hair, "Why are you here so early though? Did something happen?"

"Relax, nothing's happened. I came to pick you up; we're going surfing."

* * *

Three hours later the pair found themselves at the beach. They would have been there earlier if Nell hadn't insisted on a nap and Eric, as always, was unable to deny her anything, especially when his partner was curled up next to him on the sofa, half-asleep with her head on his shoulder and hand trailing patterns across his forearm.

Placing his hand on the younger woman's back, Eric guided Nell across the beach to the rental shack. They would need to borrow a board for Nell as his was far too big for the petite woman to even try and use.

"Hey, Danny, you in here?" Eric called out, seeing the front empty.

"Yeah, in the back." A voice called out from seemingly nowhere.

Grabbing Nell's hand as if it was the most natural thing, Eric made his way to the back of the store before stopping and whistling.

"Sweet board, you building this one yourself?" Eric asked, letting go of his partner to inspect the surfboard in front of him, fingers trailing across it.

"Yup, guy came in last week, told me what he wanted, gave me his money and left. Couldn't exactly say no could you?" Danny replied, wiping his hands on a nearby rag before noticing Nell.

Seeing Danny glancing from Nell to himself, Eric introduced the two. "Danny, this is Nell. I told you about her a while back, remember? I finally managed to get her out here. Nell, this is Danny. This man is practically a God when it comes to surfing, you should have seen him!"

Moving out from behind the board, Danny wheeled himself out from behind his workstation, pushing the board away so he could get his wheelchair through the gap. Stopping before Nell he stuck out his hand, waiting for her to take it before lifting her hand to his lips, placing a small kiss on her knuckles.

"Pleasure to meet you, Nell. You here for a board?" Danny asked and Eric sighed in relief as he let go of the red-heads hand.

"Yeah, Eric said you could help with that."

"You ever surfed before?"

"No."

"I wouldn't be going out there today then, try the basics on the sand." Danny said without even looking back at the pair as he tried to pull a dark blue and white board from a shelf.

"Why not?" Nell asked and Eric lifted the board from the hooks on the wall, allowing Danny to take it down.

"There's gonna be some big waves out there today, not really beginner material if you get me," he answered before turning to Eric, "If you take her out there, you keep her safe. You get me?"

"I get you," Eric said, eyes flickering from Danny to Nell, "I'd never put her in harm's way, we'll stick to the sand today."

* * *

Eric had spent the last hour teaching Nell the proper way to stand on her board which, in theory, shouldn't be as hard as the pair were finding it but Nell was a perfectionist and Eric wasn't willing to let his partner anywhere near the ocean until the basics were as natural as breathing to her.

"Like this?" Nell asked, motioning to her feet.

"Almost, just try... Here, I'll show you." Moving from where he'd been watching Eric stood behind Nell, pushing her feet slightly further apart and placing his hands on her shoulders, titling her body just so.

"There, perfect," he whispered, barely audible to anyone else and smiled as he felt a shiver run through his partner.

"Thank you for this, Eric," Nell said as she leaned into her surprisingly sturdy partner, eyes still focused on the waves before her.

Eric, however, was solely focused on the way his partner felt standing so close to his. Leaning down he brushed his nose against her hair, practically nuzzling his partner, planning to tell Nell that she was welcome, that he'd be happy to do this again, that he'd do anything for her until he was distracted be the sharp intake of breath from the red-head in front of him.

The red-head who didn't seem to remember how close they were as she turned to face him. Eric watched as she lost her balance as the board tipped under her and felt her hands reach out to grasp his shoulders for support. The technical operator managed to tighten his grip on his partner and twist them so he took the brunt of the fall on the sand.

"You okay?" Nell asked she tried to brush the hair back from her face, frustrated that it wasn't any easier to manage despite the length.

Noticing her getting worked up, Eric reached up and gently pushed the offending strand behind his partners ear, letting his fingers trail down across her jaw, "I'm fine, you?"

"Mm-hm," the intelligence analyst nodded, her eyes flitting from looking in his eyes to his lips which Eric noticed.

Feeling his mouth suddenly go dry, he licked his lips and watched as his partner seemed transfixed before blushing.

"I should move," the red-head mumbled, trying to get off of her partner as Eric realised Nell was practically straddling him after their fall.

As his partner stood up and turned around, waiting for him to move, Eric realised that he would have much rather they'd stayed where they were and that, maybe, not surfing with Nell wasn't so bad.

* * *

**A/N2: Points for anyone who recognised the _Frozen_ reference in there, let me know if you found it. Also, I am terrible at keeping these chapters short. I don't think they're all going to be this long but they're probably not going to be as short as they were... **


	6. Smooth

**A/N: And now I present to you... DrunkNell! Well, more like TispyNell but who cares, right? I had a lot of fun writing this one so I do hope you all enjoy it!**

* * *

**6 - Smooth **

_**Eric liked to think of himself as something of a pick-up artist, but he doubted any of his tricks would work on her. **_

Nell knew that Eric had... _feelings_ for her. Feelings that went beyond strictly platonic, best friend feelings; she'd be blind to have not noticed it.

The problem was, Nell wasn't quite sure how far these feelings went and, considering her bad luck with the R-word in the past, refused to act on them until she was sure. Eric was the best friend that Nell never had when she was growing up; she was always too smart or too far ahead, didn't fit in with people her age or her intellectual peers. Sure, things got a little easier when she got to college and met Nate but by then Nell was so focused on her studies that she barely noticed any attention that she received.

Eric understood her though, he knew what it was like to spend half your life wishing you were a normal kid, knew what it was like knowing that your 'friends' only liked you when it came to copying your answers for math or needed a partner for a project. Eric knew that she was smart and didn't care; he liked her for who she was and not what some stupid IQ test said.

This is why Nell laughed off Eric's feelings for her; when he bought her that football DVD and started telling her about his _Romancing The One_ profile, Nell laughed and walked away because it was _safer_. The strange almost flirting between them while they were in OPS was ignored by the intelligence analyst because it was _safer_. The aftermath of that one stupid, impulsive and incredible kiss was ignored because it was safer to pretend that nothing had happened than to admit that Nell actually had feelings for her partner and potentially ruin whatever it was that was between them.

Unfortunately for Nell, Eric didn't seem to understand the idea of being safe. The touches, the late night conversations, video games at his place and falling asleep on his shoulder and waking up with his arms around her wasn't safe but Eric did so regardless.

If Nell was completely honest with herself - which didn't happen very often but after almost two bottles of wine with Kensi, Nell figured she owed it to herself - she enjoyed it.

The past few weeks though, Eric had been different. He'd been withdrawn and the banter between them had felt forced. Kensi, naturally, had blamed Deeks for everything but Nell wasn't so sure. Convinced that her partners sudden change was her own fault Nell had jumped into the nearest taxi, determined to get to the bottom of her partners recent personality shift while Kensi sat beside her singing the soundtrack to Top Gun as 'moral support'.

As the taxi pulled to a stop and Kensi tried to pay the fare, Nell began rethinking her decision to come.

"Come on, Nell. We can do this!" Kensi yelled, unable to control herself in her current state of inebriation, "Well, _you_ can do this, _I_ can watch." The agent said as she sat down cross-legged on Eric's small front lawn and waited for Nell to ring the doorbell.

Hearing movement from inside the house, Nell took a step back and took a deep breath and leant against one of the pillars on the porch to steady her.

This turned out to be a wise decision when the door finally opened.

Standing before her was a woman. A blonde woman. A blonde woman whose legs didn't stop and had a body to die for.

"This was a bad idea, sorry," Nell yelled as she ran away from the house and toward the beach and Kensi tried to unfold her legs to follow.

"Nell! Wait!" Eric called from behind her after seeing his partners' hasty retreat but Nell refused to slow down, instead the red-head decided to speed up.

Before Nell could work out what was going on she found herself falling, face first, into the sand and felt her partner's hands trying to pull her up.

"Nell, you okay? Nell?" Eric asked, worried about his partner. He'd never seen her so upset and her sudden silence was worrying him. "Hey, come on, what's wrong? Nell?..." He tried to coax her into looking at him, tucking her hair behind her ears and letting his fingers drift along her jaw to her chin, trying to prompt her into at least looking up.

"It's fine, it was stupid, you should go home to... whoever she was." Nell slurred, waving her hands in the direction she had just run while still avoiding looking directly at Eric.

"What? You're starting to confuse me here; can we start from the beginning?"

Unsure if it was the tone of his voice, the wine or a mixture of the two, Nell looked up at Eric and tried to explain while attempting to stand.

"I like you! That's what's wrong," Eric froze at her admission but Nell either didn't notice or didn't care and decided to carry on regardless, "But it doesn't matter because you don't like me anymore. Maybe you never did, doesn't matter, it's fine. I'm over it. Go back to your supermodel and I'll stay here 'til Kensi finds me."

Prompted into responding at the sight of his partner trying to run away again, Eric ran over what Nell had said, trying to make sense of anything after her opening statement.

"Wait, Nell stop," Eric yelled, catching up to the intelligence analyst and grabbing her arm, forcing her to turn around and face him. "I'm not sure what just happened but I'm going to try and fix things here; that girl you saw at my place is my sister. Cara's staying with me after being kicked out of her last place. I'm not leaving you here and you're _over me_?"

"Your sister?" Nell whispered, glancing up at Eric.

"Yes, sister. Now can you please explain what you meant when you said you were over me?" Eric said, swallowing deeply waiting for his partner's next words.

"I thought that... It's just you'd been so distant and quiet and I saw _Cara_..." Nell practically spat out the name despite knowing that there was nothing going on between Eric and his sister, "I thought that you didn't want me anymore which sucks because I think that I want you." She finished, trailing off towards the end and looking down.

"I'm going to kill her." The technical operator announced, startling Nell. "Cara, I'm going to kill Cara," he tried to explain, "She told me to try backing off, to try being aloof or whatever. I didn't think you'd get upset over any of this. God, Nell, I'm sorry."

"You changed to try and impress me?" Nell asked, trying to understand what Eric had just told her.

"Yeah, pretty stupid, huh?" Rubbing the back of his neck, Eric dared to look at his partner who was staring up at his.

Slowly, she raised her hand to his face and traced his cheekbone with the backs of her fingertips before bringing the digits back down to cup his jaw while her thumb stroked the stubble gracing his chin.

Waiting until Eric was completely relaxed; Nell finally spoke up, "Wolfram, I liked you just the way you were."

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**A/N2: Well, how was it? Honestly guys... Please don't ghost read this, I would rather have someone point out where I'm going wrong or what you want more of than have you all stay silent.**


	7. Fur

**A/N: I'm actually a little worried about this one, it's shorter that the past couple have been and it's first person narrative. Anyone who knows me will know that I avoid it like the plague but hey, I did say I was going to try and challenge myself... **

**I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to review so far, you're all too kind. Someone mentioned that they would like to see more Densi in this via a review so I thought I'd address that publicly here; there will be more Densi in this fic, I do have several chapter devoted to them but as I am first and foremost a Neric shipper most chapter will feature the Neric pairing. I really hope that doesn't put anyone off of this story but I thought it would be best to clear that up now. **

**Also, this weekend I'm not going to be able to post anything, that's why I'm giving you two chapters today and two on Monday. Enjoy! **

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**7 - Fur **

_**He still doesn't know what she named her dog and if Nell has her way, he never will. **_

"Eric!" I called out, chasing after the small puppy across the beach and watching as my best friend dived on to the sand, trying to catch the energetic canine.

Eventually, Eric sat up, holding the Jack Russell/Terrier cross in his arms like a baby, waiting for me to reattach the lead to the harness before we stood up and carried on walking along the pier. Today's obedience lesson was over.

Two weeks ago, Eric showed up at my apartment with coffee and a bearclaw, letting me know he'd decided what we were doing with our Sunday. He'd been doing that a lot recently, planning strange days out for the two of us or just showing up with a bag full of movies and a pack of Oreos. Honestly, I wasn't going to complain, I enjoyed spending time with Eric and it gave me something to look forward too during the week.

And if, occasionally, it felt more like a date than two co-workers and friends just hanging out together then that was just a happy little side-effect.

Anyway, two weeks ago, Eric turns up at my place and tells me that we're heading to the pier where there was some animal adoption agency trying to advertise themselves and encourage people to adopt.

So there we were, walking around and looking at all the cute little animals while I was holding Eric's hand. If he noticed or cared then he did a pretty good job of hiding it. If anyone else asked I was simply holding on to my partner to make sure we didn't get separated in the crowd and that lacing our fingers together was purely in the interest of safety. Obviously.

Eric was loving it; the man was practically bouncing from one pen to another and pretending that the animals were talking to me, giving each pet a different voice and pulling ridiculous faces while doing so, trying to get me to smile

It worked.

There was this one pen full of cross-breeds and one of them was rolling around and just generally being exceptionally cute. I let go of Eric to pick one of the puppies up and couldn't help but laugh at the mop of fur on the little guys head, almost mimicking the curls my own partner sported. The woman who was watching the pups told us that he was the runt of the litter and Eric made some sort of joke about him being so tiny, much like myself. I wasn't really listening to any of this though, I was focused on the dog wriggling around in my arms and the way that Eric had wrapped on of his own arms around my waist and was petting the bundle of fur.

Next thing I know, Eric's trying to convince me to adopt the little guy, claiming that if I had a dog in LA, I'd have to settle down in LA.

I know that he's still worried I'm going to leave the team after our last case; I'd gone undercover at another think-tank, one that had been hounding me to join for longer than I cared to remember. Things had taken a turn for the worse and I'd ended up tied to a chair with a gun against my neck. I'd panicked afterwards when I'd finally made it back to the Mission and was safe and for some stupid reason told Eric that I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep doing 'this'. At that point, I really wasn't sure if I meant field work, the job all together or whatever was going on between my partner and myself. Eric just hugged me tighter, his hand coming up to tangle his fingers in my hair and pressing a quick kiss to my temple, something he'd been doing more often lately, and kept telling me that I was okay now, I was safe and that he'd never let anything happen to me again.

But, yeah, that's how I ended up with a new puppy. That's probably a terrible initial reason to get any animal but, honestly, I doubt Eric would have been able to persuade me as well as he did if some part of me didn't want a puppy. Eric's agreed to help me train the little rascal which means that he's over at my place more often which is nice.

"You should really name the little guy, it would make this all easier if we have to catch him again next time."

It took me a moment to realise that my partner had even spoken and another few second to comprehend what he'd said.

"It's got to be perfect though, I can't call him something I'll regret in a year or two," I answered smiling up at him.

"Uh-huh, I just think you're indecisive," Eric joked as his arm found its way around my middle, pulling me closer to him as we walked along.

Eric doesn't know that I have named the little puppy though; it was the first night after I'd adopted him and Eric was sprawled out on the sofa with the dog sat on his chest. I was standing in the doorway watching them and started laughing when they'd looked up at me before jumping up to greet me, completely in sync. They were both so excitable and irritating and adorable...

No, Eric doesn't know that I have named the puppy but I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to hide it from him.

How exactly do you explain to your best friend that your new dog is also called Eric?

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**A/N2: And now I anxiously await your thoughts... **


	8. Advocate

**A/N: And I'm back. As promised, I'll be uploading two chapters today so I hope you like them both, as always please review! **

* * *

**8 - Advocate **

_**When she first transferred, he would have done anything to get his agent back, but seeing her now he's grateful he didn't. **_

After 45 years of working in Naval Intelligence, Rupert Gall had seen more throughout his career than the latest batch of recruits could even believe.

The fact that most of the new intakes didn't look like they'd even left high school was not lost on him, in fact Rupert was convinced that the probies were getting younger and younger each year; Rupert refused to believe that this might be due to that fact that he was getting older each year. With only two more years until Rupert could officially retire, the portly man decided to grin and bear it when he was told to take his small collection of the 'best and brightest' to a conference discussing the leaps and bounds intelligence gathering had taken over the years thanks to technology. The talk itself promised to be interesting, guest speakers from all over the world would be attending the talks, providing new methods and picking apart old ones. However, having to take 'the children' as he liked to think of the new intakes was not Rupert's idea of fun.

They were too young and green, too eager to please and too arrogant to believe that maybe, just maybe, they didn't know everything yet.

After listening to Michael and Andrea argue in the car over which talk to go see first and hear Matthew prattle on about who would be there and where they were from, Rupert was beginning to regret agreeing to take the children. Removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose, Rupert could feel yet another headache forming.

"What about this one?" Beth, one of the younger recruits asked, trying to control the group.

"That's not even real intelligence gathering," Michael sighed, "It's just gonna be another geek gushing over his computer."

"I think we should go to it," Andrea interrupted. _Of course she'd want to go to that one,_ Rupert thought, _anything to go against Michael._

Rupert had stopped listening to the group and was thinking about how much easier things would be if both Michael and Andrea would just give up the charade and lose the sexual tension surrounding them when Matthew tapped his shoulder.

"You okay, sir?"

"Fine, Matt. You don't have to call me sir either."

"Sorry, sir. Force of habit," Matthew shrugged. "I think they finally decided on the tech talk from L.A. though."

Following the younger man into the lecture hall, Rupert took his seat with the rest of the children and checked the welcome pack to see what exactly he'd gotten himself in for. "**The Perks of Having a Partner**."

_Oh God, _thought Rupert, _please don't let this be some team building thing. I'd rather listen to Michael and Andrea argue for four hours straight. _

Taking a deep breath and preparing for the worst, the elderly analyst looked to find some sort of small explanation for the talk.

**A discussion of the pro's and cons of partnering Intelligence Analysts with Technical Operators. Based on a true partnership and the success rates observed within this working relationship.**

**Presented by Eric Beale and Nell Jones, NCIS.**

"Nell Jones," Rupert whispered, hardly able to believe the name printed in front of him in black and white.

"What was that, sir?" Matthew asked, turning slightly in his seat, gaining the attention of the rest of the children.

"One of the presenters for this, Nell, she used to be one of mine. I taught her almost... Must have been about eight years ago. I guess." Rupert told the group, not noticing the way they reacted. Instead Rupert was trying to remember the last time he'd seen the spritely red-head.

She'd been one of the first intakes on the new mentoring scheme Rupert had taken over. Younger than everyone there, Nell had made quite the impression on Rupert after fighting tooth and nail with one of the senior operatives assisting the mentoring programme over which line of enquiry would prove more beneficial to the investigation. Alex, the senior operative, had pulled rank and ordered the group to search his parameters via facial rec. Nell hadn't given in so easily though and had set up in front the computer furthest from the group to set up her own search, not an easy task for someone on their first day.

In the end, Nell had been right and if it hadn't been for her bending the rules then the killer they were chasing would likely not have been caught without murdering again.

Rupert had to admit, Nell was one of the smartest operative he'd ever been able to work with. She was hard-working and thorough, didn't work so well with the other recruits though. Instead Nell decided to work on her own most of the time, often doubling her workload and still managing to find what she needed. In short, she was incredible and even though there wasn't an awful lot Rupert could do in terms of mentoring the young red-head he still felt a pang of loss when Director Vance called to tell him that Nell would be transferred within the week. A top secret assignment, the Director told him, he wouldn't be able to track the young woman's work even if he'd wanted to.

But that was years ago and now, here she was. The little spit-fire herself, standing on stage and telling the room about the her work with the tall blonde standing next to her and calling him her partner.

Years ago, the Nell he knew would have screamed bloody murder at being assigned a partner, working better alone than having to constantly explain herself to someone else; the kids brain worked like something else, she could run rings round the best of them mentally and not even break a sweat.

Back then, he would have fought against the directors wishes to transfer Nell but right now, seeing her on stage, laughing and smiling at Mr Beale, seeing the closure rates and new methods and techniques for both the technical and Intel sides of their work, Rupert was glad he didn't. There was nothing more he could do for her, she would have wasted away in the programme with nothing new, nothing to stretch and test her wings with.

The Nell on stage right now was not a Nell he recognised.

This Nell played well with others, she seemed happier with this partner of hers than Rupert had ever seen her. Maybe leaving the programme was a good move for her, maybe she needed someone who could test her as this Eric guy obviously could.

Barely paying attention to the rest of the seminar, Rupert lost himself in thoughts, one day, finding partners for the children. Maybe then they'd be easier to deal with.

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**A/N2: So, thoughts? I'll be uploading chapter nine later on... **


	9. Man

**A/N: I am open to constructive criticism, welcome it even, it helps me better myself as a writer but I will not stand for hatred and flames being left as reviews. A couple of people, kindly, told me that they would no longer be interested in this fic as it will be mostly Neric and that's fine, everyone has their own personal preferences. However, if you want to call me a 'useless writer' and tell me to not bother with anything because I'm not catering to your favourites then, quite frankly, you are petty and need to grow up. Such comments will not be tolerated. There are literally hundreds of Densi fics out there but less than 160 for Neric and about a third of those are actually Nallen in disguise. If this isn't your thing then fine, that's up to you, but don't start bitching and screaming because you're not happy with it.**

**Sorry about that but after some of the messages I've received today I had to get that off my chest. That being said though, thank you to those of you who do review, it honestly means the world to know that you're enjoying my work. **

**Anyway, on with the story. Not too sure about this one; we see quite a lot of Jealous!Eric on the show and so I really wanted to do him justice here. This one is set maybe a year or so ahead of the shows current timeline. Hope you like it... **

* * *

**9 - Man**

_**He knows that it's necessary, but that doesn't stop his fingers from itching to strangle the guy every time he checks out Nell. **_

Stuck in OPS, Eric sat watching the main screen clenching and unclenching his fists.

Nell had been sent out into the field and again, another think-tank that wanted her had popped up, creating the perfect cover story for her. Eric knew that his partner was smart, though calling Nell 'smart' was something of an understatement. He wasn't even angry about Hetty sending his partner out into the field again; Nell had been going out more and more recently and Eric knew that she was thinking about becoming a full-time agent. He also knew that his partner was more than capable of taking care of herself and the way that his heart clenched every time Nell left OPS was something Eric wasn't yet willing to address.

No, Eric was pacing around like a caged animal because of the man on screen.

The man Nell was on a date with.

Well, technically it wasn't a date, it was part of her cover and all Nell was trying to do was get as much information from their suspect as possible without him noticing. Still, that didn't mean she had to keep laughing like that.

The fact that Eric was practically starring the suspect in the eye wasn't lost on the technical operator either. Nell wasn't the tallest out there and she was wearing a button camera, for crying out loud. Did this guy have no shame?!

"Yeah, buddy, her eyes are up there," Eric grumbled in OPS, unaware that Nell had heard him until the feed from the camera shifted slightly as the young agent shifted her shirt slightly.

Smirking to himself, Eric tried to focus on running a complete background search on this guy. Daniel Maston just appeared six years ago and after a few clever searches on Eric's behalf they'd discovered that Daniel Maston had been eight other people prior to the latest alias. If that wasn't enough to raise red flags then the suspicious death of the marine two weeks ago, the same time Maston began working at the think tank, had the team investigating.

"Try asking about his family, see if that helps," Eric said, moving away from the terminal and to the laptop found behind Maston's house.

"So what about you family, do they know about all this?" Nell asked Daniel, gesturing at the office building behind them where the think tank operated.

"No, my father wasn't around much as a kid. Walked out on me and my mom when I was eight. She died a few years ago. It's a shame," Maston told her, "She's always been so supportive of me when I was growing up, worked every hour she could to help send me out to the best colleges out there. While everyone else laughed at the 'smart freak' my mom just loved me."

Nell tried to smile and listen to everything Daniel told her but, honestly, the man could talk about paint drying and it would be more interesting. Apparently Eric agreed with her as he sighed loudly over the comms.

"I have a tragic backstory too; you don't see me painting it out like a Hallmark movie!" Eric told her, looking up from the laptop to the main screen to see Maston once again starring down Nell's blouse. He knows that it's necessary, but that doesn't stop his fingers from itching to strangle the guy every time he checks out Nell.

"Mh-mm," the analyst nodded, raising her hand to cover her smile at Eric's outburst. Unfortunately, Daniel took this as a cue to continue his sob story.

"Seriously, this guy is just milking it now. What a joke," Eric mumbled to himself as he tried to hack into the laptop again, forgetting that Nell could hear everything he was saying about her 'date'. After trying various methods to get past the first few firewall the technical operator

"Got it, guys," Eric announced over comms as he looked up at the main screen to see Maston holding his partners hands, tracing patterns nonsensical patterns across the skin and distracting the technician.

"Eric, can you hear us?" Callen called out over the comms.

"Yeah, sorry, I um," Eric stammered, eyes glued to the sight of someone else touching his partner.

"Eric? What'd you find?" Sam asked, trying to prompt Eric into talking sense.

"He's not the guy, Maston's in WITSEC, keeps getting moved around after a run in with some terrorists a while back. His laptops clean, well. It's not got the files Petty Officer John was supposed to have on it." Eric relayed, finally tearing his eyes away from the main screen.

"So we can cut him loose? You hear that Nell?" Callen asked over the comms, getting no response from the intelligence analyst.

Pulling out his phone, Eric sent his partner a quick text.

Nell finally pulled her hands away from Maston after hearing her phone beep on the table, pulling it out and seeing it was a text from Eric she opened the message, _"Not the guy, get rid of him and come home."_ Nell had joked one night during a long case that she spent more time in OPS than she did in her apartment and Eric had continued the joke by referring to the Mission as home.

"Who's that?" Maston asked, seeing Nell smile.

"Nothing much, just my mom."

Well, Nell could hardly tell the ex-suspect that she'd been trying to flirt earlier with that it was actually her boyfriend texting her.

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**A/N2: After rewatching ****_War Cries_**** for what feels like the hundredth time, I couldn't resist add the 'just my mom' line. Hope you liked it, sorry it's a little shorter than the last few**


	10. Bullet

**A/N: Okay, this one starts off kinda strange but try and stick with it, it'll all be explained. A huge thank you to all the kind people who have reviewed and agreed with my little rant last chapter.**

* * *

**10 - Bullet**

_**They're trained to take a bullet in the line of duty, and they would both willingly do so for their partner. **_

Eric glanced down the corridor; he could hear the invaders approaching and knew that it was now or never. They had one chance of getting out of here and if only one of them could make it, Eric knew that it wouldn't be him.

"Nell-" He tried only to be cut off by his partner.

"No, Eric, save it. We are getting out of here. Both of us," she practically growled, searching for something, anything to help them get out of the basement alive.

"Just listen to me, you know how this is going to end," Eric whispered, chancing a look at his partner while still trying to keep an eye on the corridor that the enemy would soon be coming through. "We don't both have to die here."

"I'm not leaving you, not like this," Nell interrupted, shaking her head.

"Dammit Nell, just go." Eric shouted, unable to look at his partner as he took his place behind and overturned table by the door. "You get out of here, you live and you finish this. You understand me?"

"Eric, I-I don't want to do this without you." Nell whispered, taking her eyes off of the cupboard that she'd been searching, "I can't do it, I'll stay here. I can-"

"No," Eric stopped her, "This is where I make my last stand Nell, and we both know it." Replacing the magazine of the gun he was carrying, Eric looked at his partner who was shaking her head. "Nell, you'll be fine. You can do this. I _know_ you can."

Seeing that her partner had made his mind up, Nell nodded. "Please be careful."

"I will. Now go, quickly," Eric said as he turned back to face the door, knowing that it would be moments before they were surrounded.

Taking a deep breath, Nell climbed over the cabinets to the small window before pulling herself through it, hoping that Eric would be fine while knowing that the chance of ever actually seeing her partner again alive was practically non-existent.

Trying to block out the sounds of gunfire behind her, Nell ran as quickly as she could to the front of the building, searching for her targets. It was one thing to know that your partner would willingly die for you but when your partner meant everything to you, when your partner's death practically guaranteed your own everything changed.

Finally, finding the men she was searching for, the men who'd sent the soldiers down to kill her partner, Nell raised her own gun, aiming carefully. She would not miss this shot. Letting the bullets fly, the intelligence analyst took down the men and their body guards quickly and efficiently, avenging her partner's death.

"Whoa there Unonoctium, remind me not to get on your bad side," Eric joked, placing his hand on his partners shoulder, rubbing it slightly as the words **GAME OVER** appeared on the screen.

Moments later, a small _'Incoming Call'_ signal flashed at the bottom of the screen. Eric waited a few minutes for Nell to swallow the mouthful of beer she had. His beer too, Eric noticed.

"Hey guys," Eric greeted as two male faces appeared on the split screen in front of him.

"Can you not let us win just once?" Justin, the face on the left asked.

"Yeah, you guys are brutal," Ozzy, the man sitting on the right hand side agreed, smiling all the while.

"You were the ones who asked us to help," Nell piped up, laughing at the games designers.

"We asked you to help us beta-test our game, not destroy our manly pride!" Justin shouted at Nell who just laughed, knowing that he was joking.

Ozzy, eager to get feedback, muted Justin's video feed. "What did you guys think though? Seriously?"

"It's good, I don't think everyone who plays it will have a partner in hyper-rage," Eric laughed, taking his beer back from Nell and poking her in the side.

"Not cool, bro," Justin announced, having finally worked out how to unmute his video feed.

"Man up!" Ozzy yelled at his co-designer while Nell shook her head at their antics. Eric had called her a few weeks ago to help some of his old friends who were trying to create a first-person, multi-player shooting game. It had proved to be a bigger challenge for the designers than they'd thought and over the weeks Nell had spent more nights than she could remember playing the next level of the game or listening to Justin and Ozzy bicker over video chat.

"Hey guys, I think we're done here. Got to be at work pretty early tomorrow," Eric told the pair on screen.

"No worries, we've got some work to do here anyway. I'll drop you a text when we've got something new for you," Ozzy answered before hanging up. Just quickly said his goodbye's before leaving too and the screen went dark.

After making sure that the designers had left, Eric turned around to see his partner finishing the last of his beer.

"You could try drinking your own you know," he told her.

Nell shrugged, smirking and she removed the bottle from her lips. "I could but then you'd have nothing to do."

"Nothing? Are you sure?" Eric asked her as he jumped over the coffee table and on to the couch, grabbing his partner and tickling her sides, knowing that she was incredibly ticklish. "I take a bullet for you and you repay me by stealing my beer?"

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**A/N2: So, did I do good? Please review, no silent reading please! **

**Also, next chapter is a Densi chapter so there's something to look forward to...**


	11. Space

**A/N: Okay, so this one is a little shorter than the last few have been but I hope you all enjoy it all the same. It is a Densi chapter and in my mind both Deeks and Kensi start working on their 'thing' as soon as she gets back from Afghanistan. I know this wont happen on the show so I'm trying to capture the happy couple-y stuff for them here. **

**Also, Sam and Callen are back for this one. Go team! **

* * *

**11 – Space**

_**They don't seem to notice how much of the time they're in constant contact with each other. **_

Sometimes it was as innocent as a simple hand on her lower back as she walked through a door or the brushing of fingers as he passed her whatever he's picked up from the food truck for lunch.

Other times, it was decidedly less innocent but thankfully for the rest of the team moments like those were usually kept behind closed doors or at home.

Ever since Kensi's return from Afghanistan neither the agent nor her partner could stay out of contact for long.

Sam and Callen kept the jokes about the whole 'touching situation' as Eric liked to call it to a minimum; Callen knew how hard it was to lose a damn good partner and even though he didn't personally get to work with Kensi all that often, Callen found himself glancing over to the desk next to his with a startling regularity, checking that Kensi was still with them and her return hadn't been some strange dream.

Sam knew how hard it was to be in love with someone in the field. Every time 'Quinn' came out to play he swore his heart refused to start; he couldn't imagine having to work side by side with Michelle, doing what he does, every day. Never knowing if today was it or if you'd be able to make it home, unable to separate his wife from his partner; Sam had a great deal for respect for the detective for standing up for what he wanted and making it work.

Especially when the woman that Deeks wanted most in the world was inside a nightclub, flirting with and trying to get information from their latest suspect and arms dealer Jahnzeb Amir.

"Deeks, breathe, she's gonna be fine," Callen called out from the front of the SUV that the three men were currently piled into.

"I know that, it's just usually one of us is in there with her. What of something goes wrong, who's got her back?" Deeks asked, looking at Sam and Callen, leg bouncing up and down as he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist. The detective was afraid for his partner but still accepted that they had a job to do, even if he wasn't happy about being separated from his partner.

"She'll be fine; this is Kensi we're talking about, right Sam?"

"Sure thing, she knows how to take care of herself."

"Exactly. Just relax, she'll be done soon." Callen told the detective, turning back around to face the club only to see Kensi being lead out of the back door with a gun against her back.

Hoping against reason that Deeks hadn't just seen his partner being frog-marched out of the club at gun point, Callen turned to face his partner, ready to ask if they should step in now or give it a moment when the detective shot out of the car and halfway across the tarmac before the senior agent had a chance to say a word.

"Let her go and we might just let you live," Deeks yelled at Amir who was currently using Kensi as a human shield.

"I'd listen to him if I were you," Sam added as he joined the small group, raising his own gun at their target.

"Deeks," Kensi spoke up, locking eyes with her partner.

"We got you, Fern."

Within moments of hearing these words everything seemed to speed up and the agents were a furry of motion. Kensi sent her elbow back, flying into Amir's gut and knocking him off-balance long enough for Deeks to let off three chest shots, taking down the arms dealer for good.

For a brief moment, no one moved, waiting to see if Amir was going to get up again. Leaning down to check and confirming that there was no pulse, Callen called Eric to ask for a coroner to come and pick up the body while Kensi practically threw herself into her partners willing and open arms.

"No more missions alone, I'm not doing that again," Deeks whispered into his partner's hair, tightening his arms around her and tilting his head to kiss them small exposed patch of skin by her neck.

"Deal." Pulling back long enough to look her partner in the eyes properly, Kensi reached up to brush Deeks' haphazard hair away from his eyes before moving in to kiss her boyfriend properly.

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**A/N2: Well, was it acceptable? Let me know if you like the longer length chapters or if you want them all to be this brief too. **


	12. Gibberish

**A/N: And we are back with more Neric-y goodness! A lot of you reviewed saying that you preferred the longer chapters and apparently my head took that at a sign to make this my longest chapter for this yet. Hope you enjoy your latest instalment! **

* * *

**12 – Gibberish **

_**It sounds like complete nonsense coming out of his mouth, but somehow she still understands him. **_

Each and every member of Hetty's team had been carefully selected due to their abilities.

Callen had been the first. Hetty had heard rumours of the man with no name, a man who lived like a ghost and had no problems with finishing his mission. Whatever the cost. Men like Callen were hard to find and so Hetty made sure to keep an eye on the young man, watched as he travelled and began to learn more about the man. Of course she would deny it vehemently if you asked her but part of the reason Hetty eventually hired Mr Callen was due to her own curiosity and a desire to understand this strange nomad better.

Nell wasn't sure who exactly it was that Hetty noticed after Callen but she knew that Sam was approached soon after leaving the SEALS. Hetty needed a man who would follow orders and keep the lone wolf that she had found in-line. It had taken a while but eventually Sam had caved, his family didn't have to know and would be safe while he still got a chance to do what he loved and keep his country safe.

Kensi was added to the team after finishing her training. The woman was incredibly bright, fast, and thorough; she was driven like no one Hetty had even seen before. The small woman saw a lot of herself in Kensi and understood what the young agent had endured in her past but despite the backstory and hesitation she may have had about assigning a fresh-faced rookie to the team, Hetty decided to trust her instincts and went as far as to personally invite the young woman to the Office of Special Projects.

Deeks was a late addition to the team, much like Nell. The man had a way about him, something that try as she might, the analyst could not define. He was a jack of all trades and, despite what people thought of him, somehow seemed to be a master of each and every one. Deeks was talented beyond belief when it came to undercover work and was one of the best detectives the Nell had ever met. To meet Deeks away from the Mission, to know nothing about him or what he does, you would never guess that the man was a cop but Nell guessed that that's what drew Hetty to him. Appearances are deceptive and with Deeks it was impossible to guess what you were in for exactly. The man's skill set was extensive and impossible to pin-point and decipher and perhaps this is what forced the elderly woman to seek out the detective.

Nell hadn't been selected like the rest of the team. She had been sent here against her will and knew that Hetty did not approve of having an intelligence analyst around but the red-head had proven herself. She had found a sort of mentor in Hetty and without her she wouldn't have met one of the most extraordinary men she had ever had the fortune of meeting.

Eric Beale was a confusing man to say the least. He was unafraid of death but would not kill. He was impossible intelligent but attempted to simultaneously hide it and boast about it through his own strange sense of humour. He was a rebel to the core but followed orders; Nell could sit for hours trying to name each and every contradiction within the technical operator's personality.

Nell felt like she knew and understood her partners quirks as well as her own; he was a smart man but often forgot that other people didn't operate on the same level of functioning as he did. Most people were easily confused and bewildered by Eric's seemingly effortless leaps in conversation as he didn't feel the need to explain what he defined as the 'simpler parts' or his job. Nell understood and accepted this easily, she was guilty of doing the exact same thing on countless occasions and unlike most, both Nell and Eric could keep up with each other.

Which was why Nell was confused at the sight of her partner standing at her door, currently making no sense.

The young analyst had last seen her partner at work as they were making their way to the parking lot. Eric had mentioned something about trying to rewrite one of his older programs so that he could sell the patent and Nell accidentally brought up the subject of David. He was a school teacher who had met Nell for coffee a few times, nothing official but enough to look forward to meeting him again and for Eric to get jealous at the mention of him.

Kensi had joked in the bullpen that David would ask her out properly soon if she was lucky and Eric all but shut down and ran out of the Mission, leaving Nell to wonder why her partner was acting so strangely. Nell knew that there was something between them, a mutual attraction of sorts but neither of them were willing to act on it. Instead the partners carried on, often ignoring any feelings between them, both hoping against all reason that everything would somehow work itself out.

Apparently Eric had become tired of waiting.

"Can we go eat? Food," the technical operator asked as he leant against the doorframe, starring down at Nell and making very little sense. "Together I mean, that is, if you want to. You probably have plans though, right? Yeah, I'm just gonna," gesturing behind himself, making motions to leave, Eric turned away, preparing to walk down the three flights of stairs and go home.

"Eric, wait. What are you talking about?" Nell asked, still trying to decipher her partner's discombobulating speech.

"It doesn't matter," he called back, raising his hand in half wave without looking back.

Without overthinking it, Nell left her apartment to follow her partner, worried about him. "Come on. Can you just wait?"

"What?" Stopping on the stair and turning round, Eric faced his partner, looking almost directly in her eyes as she was two steps above him.

"What was that all about, Beale?"

"Nothing, it's fine. I should get going."

"No way, not yet. What's going on?" Grabbing his shirtsleeve to keep him in place, Nell looked at her partner, eyes flitting across his face, searching for a sign that would explain his behaviour.

"I was trying to ask you to dinner," Eric sighed, lifting his hands to pinch the bridge of his nose and looking down, "But it was dumb and I shouldn't have come here and I'm sorry."

The technical operator took the red-heads silence as confirmation of his stupidity and tried to leave as Nell tightened her grip on his shirt. Turning around to face her, Eric saw his partner looking wide eyed, mouth open and eyebrows furrowed; trying to make sense of what, exactly, Eric had just told her.

"You were trying to ask me out?" She whispered, not quite believing the conclusions she had come to.

"Yes."

"On a date?"

"That was my plan."

"You were asking me out on a date?"

"Yes, okay? It was dumb and I know it and I'm sorry," Eric shouted, throwing his hands up.

"Okay," Nell whispered, still shocked that her partner was actually, finally asking her out.

"Wait, what? Did you just say 'yes'…"

"I would like to go out with you."

"Really? Erm, okay. Wow." The technical operator stammered over his words while running his hand through his hair.

Feeling brave, Nell bent down and kissed her partner on the cheek and pulled away smiling. Making her way back up the stairs she called out that she would see her partner tomorrow and laughed at his disjointed reply.

* * *

**A/N2: Honesty time, what did you think? We had a little bit of team background, a little Nell and Eric friendship and a little awkward geek love at the end. Do you want more team mentions? Less? More relationship or more friendship? **

**Only one way to let me know... **


	13. Split

**A/N: So todays chapter is ridiculously short and late because I am ridiculously ill, this the inspiration for this one. **

**Seriously, Most of today has been spent passed out in bed and for the few hours that I've managed to stay awake I've been vomiting. Pretty glamorous, aren't I?**

**Regardless though, I did try and managed to get a couple hundred words typed up. I am writing these the same day I post them so unfortunately stuff like this happens. Hope it wont affect this story again but I thought I should at least try and explain why there's so little for today. **

* * *

**13 - Split **

_**Exasperated with his whining, she gave him one of her Twizzlers. **_

"No."

"Just one?"

"Nope."

"Come on, I'm dying here!"

"Deeks."

"Kensi…"

Both the detective and agent had been having the same argument for almost twenty minutes and if the pattern from the earlier cycles held fast then in just a few moments Deeks would ask why Kensi wouldn't allow him to eat.

"But why not?" The grown man complained, stomach growling as he threw himself across the small couch and sprawled on top of his partner.

"Because you can't keep it down and you know you can't. Now if you're hungry, eat the damn crackers I bought."

Taking another bite of the sandwich she'd made, Kensi tried to ignore her partner's hopeful eyes. She'd been awake most of the night before, rubbing his back while he sat hugging the toilet. After a brief call to her mom, Kensi guessed that her boyfriend had most likely come down with some sort of stomach virus; Kensi wasn't sure how she wasn't ill too but she wasn't going to question it.

One grumpy, hungry person with a gun was more than enough.

"That was cruel," Deeks said as he watch her finish her food.

"Deeks, we tried giving you a sandwich earlier; it didn't work. It's probably best you stick to the crackers for now, at least you can keep those down."

"Yeah, because they taste like dirt."

"They can't be that bad, the woman at the store said they'd help."

"It's like an armadillo crawled into my mouth, rolled around in there for a while and left me with nothing but the taste of it." The detective told her, sticking his tongue out.

"Eww, put that back in your mouth," Kensi cried out, using her hands to try and cover his mouth. "And an armadillo, really?"

"I was going for something… abstract."

"Uh huh, sure."

"Here, you try one," Deeks sat up and reached for the pack of crackers on the table. "Money where your mouth is, Kens."

Rolling her eyes, Kensi took the offending cracker from her partner. "God, you are such a child," she whispered before taking a large bite and chewing for a moment.

Seconds passed and the agent tried to keep the cracker in her mouth and swallow while her partner looked on in glee.

"Not so great now, are they Kens?" Deeks laughed as she spat the partially chewed food out onto an empty plate.

"Oh God! What the hell do they put in those things?"

"Not sure, tastes like death and broken computer to me."

Grabbing the water bottle from the table, Kensi took a large mouthful to swill the aftertaste from the cracker out of her mouth before swallowing and grabbing the pack of Twizzlers she'd grabbed from the store.

"That was awful," Kensi told her partner before ripping the packaging open with her teeth.

"Can I have one?" Deeks asked as Kensi shoved two Twizzlers into her mouth, chewing rapidly.

"For managing to actually eat those things? Sure. But if you're sick because of this later, I am not taking care of you."

* * *

**A/N2: Yeah. This chapter is basically the three hours I've managed to stay awake today, my roommate bought me some weird crackers that were meant to settle my stomach. They didn't, they just tasted like an elephants arse and made my tongue feel like a carpet. Again, glamorous. **

**Anyway, please remember to review this and when I wake up again, I'll try and answer you all! **


	14. Midnight

**A/N: And here we go, another later than usual instalment. I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that Renée Felice Smith is 29; the woman is a stunner, I would never have guessed it. **

**Also, I'm going to have to ask you to bear with me for a couple of things in this one. There are a couple of lines that might not quite make sense but that's because this chapter is set about a year ahead of the current cannon point in the show and because I'm taking liberties with Eric's backstory. I will be addressing the confusing parts eventually, I have a couple of chapters planned that should help explain soon so if you can hang on to your questions I'd be super thankful. **

**Anyway, without further ramblings from myself, please enjoy this cute little fluffy piece. **

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**14 - Midnight **

_**It's touching that, but it doesn't stop her from throwing a pillow at the wall when he woke her up at 12.01 to wish her a 'Happy Birthday'. **_

Nell sat facing the wall, listening to the clock ticking away in the kitchen.

_Tick. _

_Tock. _

_Tick. _

_Tock._

In just a few minutes all her 'younger years' would be over as the team had been joking for at the stroke of midnight, Nell Jones would no longer be the young, twenty-something genius but rather 30 year old Nell Jones, Intelligence Analyst for NCIS and still no long term plan for the future.

For once, the red-head had no safety net. No five year plan. No idea what she would do after her time at OSP; Nell knew she wouldn't be able to stay there forever. Eventually she would get restless with nothing new to learn, with nothing to move up with or to advance the skills she'd learnt. Recently, the analyst had been toying around with the idea of becoming an agent, of going out into the field and gaining experiences that she couldn't find behind a desk or a computer screen.

Her faith in herself though as an agent had been shaken a few months ago after her abduction and despite the teams efforts to convince her that it could have been anyone of them who'd been taken, Nell still struggled with the fact that Deeks had been injured and that Callen had been shot while trying to protect her. Eric still wouldn't talk about it much, just reached out to hold on to her, making sure she was really still there with him.

Nell had mentioned in passing that she was thinking about her future and what she would do to Eric while they were hanging out at his house. Told him that she wasn't sure what would happen to her if she tried to leave and pursue something other than Intel gathering, wasn't sure she could do anything other than her current job. It was something she excelled at and, if she were honest with herself, her brain seemed to just _click_ with Intel analysing; some sort of strange cosmic sign that this was where she was meant to be, Eric had joked. Though whether he was talking about her job or more literally, with him, on his couch, practically cuddling with him, she wasn't sure.

Nell wasn't the only one with fears about the future either, it turned out. Eric had also been thinking about a life outside of OPS. His contract with the navy was almost up, his sentence almost served and with his looming freedom Eric worried about whether NCIS would even want him still after his ten years or if they'd send him out into the cold. Nell, obviously, told him that this idea was ridiculous and that he was one of the most talented, innovative technical operators that she had ever seen and that trying to replace him with anyone else was sheer stupidity.

Still though, it was nice to know that Nell was alone in thinking about the future. Eric had a few patents that he could sell, some ideas and side projects that he'd been working on while working in Ops, something that he could use _after_. Nell could think of nothing of importance that she'd done in her time at OSP. Nothing that she could use to try and create a career from; she knew that Hetty had taken a great deal of interest in her during her time in L.A., Deeks had joked that Nell was some sort of protégé for Hetty and as flattered as she was to know that the Duchess of Deception thought so highly of her, Nell wasn't so sure that she wanted what Hetty wanted for her. Nell had always been highly independent and the thought of being unknowingly conditioned for a job she wasn't ever sure she wanted didn't sit well with her.

And so, it was with these thoughts running through her head that Nell sat, starring at the wall, watching dust filter through the moonlight before throwing herself down across the bed, making one last attempt to sleep.

Her eyelids were heavy with sleep and if she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine that the blankets pulled up around her shoulders felt like a certain technical operators arms; nights staying at Eric's, or having Eric sleep at hers, had become more and more commonplace between the pair. Most of the time they tried to shrug it off as accidentally falling asleep during a movie but that didn't explain why she found herself curling up next to the taller man, head on his chest with his arms around her. It didn't explain away all the times that he'd asked her to stay, just to listen to music so she wouldn't leave.

It definitely didn't explain last week when she'd out-right asked him to stay with her and woke up in bed with her legs intertwined with his and a dead-arm for the rest of the morning.

Of course, they were both fully clothed but the red-head could feel herself getting closer to the edge. To that point where everything almost was but wasn't quite and all she really needed was to take that jump and with Eric by her side, Nell wasn't anywhere near as afraid as she usually was by this point.

Eric would catch her, she knew he would. He always did.

Half-asleep, with a smile on her face, Nell's eyes flew open moments later to glare at her phone which was currently bussing on the nightstand. Letting out a half-scream, half-sigh, Nell threw her pillow at the wall, letting out some of her aggression from having her daydreams interrupted. Reaching out from under the sheets to grab the offending item, Nell turned over, laying on her front and saw that she had one new text.

**_HAPPY BIRTHDAY! _**

_**See you later, want me to grab us some breakfast? Xx** _

_Read 12:01. _

Before Nell had chance to begin forming a reply a new text came through.

**_Sorry if you were asleep, wanted to be the first to say it. Xx_**

Smiling like a loon, Nell tapped out a quick reply before locking the phone and setting it back on the night stand.

**_I was still awake, it's fine. Thank you, I'll see you in a few hours ;) xx_**

* * *

**A/N2: So, what did you think? I love reading all you reviews so thank you to each and everyone of you who takes the time and effort to review! **


	15. Activating

**A/N: So, this one is really long because I felt like I had to make it up to the Densi fans after the pitifully short chapter for the pairing on Friday. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this and don't hate me for the direction I took with it or where I ended it... **

**Also, in my mind and in this entire story, unless I say so, Deeks and Kensi are in a somewhat functional relationship. **

**As always, please enjoy!**

* * *

**15 - Activating **

_**"Deeks, no!" she yelled, lunging a second too late to reach the doors. The bomb was counting down. **_

Almost an hour ago, Detective Martin 'Marty' Deeks had walked into the bank because a man with a gun had asked him to.

A man with a gun and a grudge against the detective by the name of John Sanders.

Kensi had been inside the bank when Sanders came running in, waving a shotgun around and heard the phone call he'd made to the negotiations team outside. Listened in as he offered to let the women and children leave if he would send in Deeks and prayed to a deity she wasn't even sure exists that her boyfriend would give his hero complex a rest for a day and not listen to a mad man's demands.

Unfortunately for her though, that's just not who Deeks was; if he was able to save even one person today then God knows he'd die trying. He was self-sacrificing and possibly the best man, best person she had ever met and so as she was forced to walk past him, barely able to even catch his eye, Kensi found herself cursing her partner for his big heart and bravery.

Standing at the barrier, close enough to the men in charge of the operation but far enough to still be able to see through the windows, Kensi watched, biting the skin around her thumb, waiting for something to happen, for a sign that her partner was okay in there.

As if Deeks could hear her, not a moment later the walkie talkies sprang to life. "Hey, anyone there?"

"Detective?" One of the older FBI agents overseeing the hostage situation responded, "This is Special Agent in Charge Hart, how are things in there."

"They're, um, they're good. Been talking to Jonny here though and turns out that he has a little surprise for you guys out there."

Kensi heard the tone in her partners voice, one she'd only heard twice before and began making her way over to the other agents, already fearing for the worst.

"Turns out," Deeks continued, "That Jonny's been hiding a bomb in here."

"Oh God, you have to get him out of there," Kensi called out, trying to break free of the police officer restraining her from reaching for the walkie talkie.

"And who, exactly are you?" Hart asked her, lowering the walkie talkie from his mouth and waving the uniformed cop away from her.

"Special Agent Kensi Blye, NCIS. I'm his partner."

""Do you know what that Sanders guy wants you partner for?"

"No sir, we have our own team looking into it though."

"Hey, are you still there?" Deeks called out, his voice distorted through the speakers.

"You might want to take this, keep your partner calm and talking. I need to make a call," Hart said as he walked away, call phone already at his ear.

"Deeks?"

"Fern? What the hell are you doing there?" Deeks cried out.

"Did you honestly think I was just going to leave when I saw you walking in there?" Kensi retorted, forcing a laugh.

"I kinda hoped you would. Listen, Kens, you have to leave now. There's a-"

"A bomb, I know. I heard." The agent cut him off, giving up on trying to force their regular banter.

"You're not going to leave, no matter what I say, are you?" Deeks asked, sighing as he ran his hand through his already mussed locks.

"Not a chance, now what does this Sanders guy want?"

"I-I really don't know. I don't even know the guy. He won't talk about wanting anything, just keeps shouting that this is right." Kensi could hear Sanders yelling at Deeks in the background, the detective had kept his finger on the talk button long enough for her to overhear; Sanders kept screaming at Deeks to give him the walkie talkie or else.

"Hello, this is John Sanders talking. Detective Deeks can't make it to the phone right now."

Kensi kept hitting the call button on the device but got no answer, just static noises.

"Damn bastard," Hart yelled, slamming the table in front of him, "Sanders must have broken the talkie. We've got nothing now."

"No, you have a detective and eight hostages in there. That's a whole lot more than _nothing_ so do your damn job and get them out of there," Kensi yelled, shoving the now useless walkie talkie into the older man's chest before leaving to join the crowds of on-lookers, waiting for her partner to leave the building; she knew that her behaviour towards SAC Hart could be seen as childish but right now, Kensi could focus on nothing other than the fact that her partner was trapped in a bank and with no way to contact her.

Aparently, Kensi didn't have to wait long as the remaining hostages started to file out of the bank, hands held high and searching francticly for loved ones. The agent saw her partner standing at the door, holding it open for the men to walk through with a strange look on his face. Before she had a chance to process what he was trying to tell her, Sanders pulled him back. Using Deeks as a human shield the two walked backwards.

"John agreed to release the hostages providing I stay," Deeks sought out his partner as he addressed the crowd of agents hovering to the side. "I'm sorry, Kens."

Realising what was happening a split second too late, Kensi ran forward to reach her partner who was being pulled into the bank, closing and locking the door behind him.

"Deeks, no!" she yelled, lunging a second too late to reach the doors, one of the uniformed officers from earlier grabbing her around the middle, stopping her from running up to the bank.

Pulling away from the officer, Kensi left the masses of happy couples reuniting to sit on a bench, head in her hands and praying for some kind of eleventh hour miracle. It was her job to protect her partner and yet, here she was, stuck outside and watching while Deeks was trapped inside the bank with a mad man wielding a gun.

The agent tried to ignore the buzzing cell phone in her back pocket but failed; checking the call screen she saw a blocked number. Deciding to answer, Kensi was sure what she expected but hearing Deeks voice definitely wasn't it.

"Can you try picking your phone up sooner next time?"

"Next time? Deeks, what are you talking about? How are you even calling me right now, what's going on?"

"Let's try and hold back on the rapid-fire there, partner," Deeks joked.

Kensi could now honestly say that she'd heard Deeks use _that_ tone three times. The voice he only used when he was genuinely fearful for his life.

"Deeks, what's going on in there? Don't you dare lie to me either," the agent added.

"Sanders is... Gone."

"How is he 'gone', Deeks? Why are you still in there if he's gone?"

"He swallowed a bullet Kens but, I can't leave. It doesn't matter. You need to tell Hart to extend to evacuation area."

"I don't understand, what do you mean?"

"Sanders rigged the bomb up to the doors somehow. If I try and open one to escape then this place goes mile high," Deeks announced over the phone, all traces of joking gone.

"What about a window?" Kensi asked, trying to figure out some way to get her partner out of the building.

"Kensi, it won't work and we're on a short schedule here. The bomb's already counting down and I don't know how to disarm it so I need you to listen to me and get everyone away from here."

"How long do we have?" The agent asked, swallowing around the lump in her throat.

"Just over two minutes, we've got to hurry here."

Kensi watched, going through the motions of assisting in getting the bystanders out of there, not really aware of anything other than the sound of her partners nervous chatter in her ear.

"Try the door," Kensi said, trying to shake the helpless feeling that was consuming her.

"I told you, they're rigged. Sanders was a crack-pot but he was thorough; if I open this door then the whole place blows.

"Dammit. Right then, plan B. I'm coming in," the agent growled.

"Fern, no. There's no time, okay? There's 30 seconds left on this clock so just… Just stay clear. Please?" Deeks begged, his voice tight and almost unrecognisable.

"Marty, no. I-"

"Please!" Deeks shouted, interrupting Kensi before she had a chance to finish what she was trying to say. "Please, just this once will you listen to me? One half of this duo has to go on. Who else will sing songs about me, huh?"

"I can't, Deeks please. I can't lose you."

"It's going to be okay, you're going to be okay Kensi. I promise."

"How long?" Kensi whispered, tears distorting her voice.

"Shit, ten seconds. Dammit, I'm sorry Kens." Deeks whispered, tears rolling down his face. The detective brought up a fist to brush them away before moving to the door and looking through the window. He could just about make out his partner in the distance, "We did good, Kensi. Don't forget that."

_Seven._

"I won't."

"Promise?"

_Six. _

"I promise, Marty."

_Five. _

Rubbing her hand over her face to wipe away the tears, Kensi focused on the lone figure standing at the doors. She'd had so many plans for the two of them. Plans that would now never be.

_Four. _

_Three._

"I love you, Marty," Kensi shouted, unwilling to hold it in. If this were to be the only chance that she had to tell him how she honestly felt then she would take it. She wasn't willing for him to die not knowing just how much she cared because of their terrible communication skills.

_Two. _

"Kensi, God. I-"

_One. _

* * *

**A/N2: I asked you not to hate me for the ending, you were kinda warned! I'm sorry!**

**Regardless, I really do hope you liked this one and I'm really excited to show you what I have planned for tomorrow. Remember how I killed Eric in chapter two? Well... We have the continuation of that little chapter coming up so stay tuned. **

**And again, I honestly love reading each and every review and so if you're one of the few who review each chapter or if you've never reviewed before, please, leave me a little comment...**


	16. Stunt

**A/N: Okay, so, here we have the second part of chapter two. If you can't remember what happened then go back and give that a quick read... **

**There is a little bit of NEEKS in this chapter which I think is one of the most adorable things on the show. Before anyone starts and uproar about it being a 'pairing', Renee herself stated that Neeks was a big bro/little sis sort of relationship and, honestly, I loved it and would like to see more of it. **

**This is my longest chapter yet, I think I'm getting a little out of control, these things were meant to be drabbles... **

**Hope you enjoy it anyway! **

* * *

** 16 - Stunt**

_**"Don't do that again, alright? You had me worried," She told him, hovering over the hospital bed. **_

_She listened as Kensi got in the ambulance and told her everything she could remember of Eric's medical history until she heard the dreaded monotone beep from the background of Kensi's comms. _

_No more Oreos or late night video games._

_No more weekends just hanging out at the beach. _

_No more chances to tell him how she felt. _

_Eric was flat lining. _

_And then everything faded to black. _

_The moment she realized she couldn't lose him was the moment she did. _

Arching her back, listening to the vertebrae pop, Nell tried to curl up in the small plastic chair. For the past six hours Nell had sat in the same seat, watching the OR doors and waiting for any news at all regarding her partner.

They'd told her when she came in that it didn't look promising, that the bullet had barely missed his heart and that if he did manage to make it through the surgery, Eric would be an incredibly lucky man. Despite Hetty telling her to 'have hope' and Deeks trying to comfort her, telling her how Eric was stronger than he looked, Nell couldn't drag her eyes away from the door. Couldn't force her heart to beat regularly until she knew that her partner was beating out the same, steady, 72-beats per minute rhythm that she'd become used to.

Nell didn't need to be told that Eric was 'strong', she knew that well enough for herself; she knew her partner better than any of the agents could ever think and she didn't need softly spoken words or unfounded promises. She didn't need the team looking at her like Eric was already gone and she was some kind of grieving woman.

No, Nell didn't need any of that. What she needed was her partner. Needed Eric to be alive and okay and sitting on their couch, holding her. She needed a chance to tell him how she felt and that she wasn't scared of holding it back anymore and for the chance to find out if anything could ever work out between the two of them because, dammit if a relationship with Eric Beale wouldn't be one of the best things that had ever happened to Nell.

Because now, in some cruel twist of fate, not only was Nell willing to admit it to herself but she was also willing to admit to her partner, best friend and partner in crime that there was a very real chance that she was in love with him.

All she had to do was wait for Eric to wake up.

He had to. Nell wouldn't accept any other alternative.

Biting the skin on her thumb and shifting slightly in her chair, Nell tried to ignore the rest of the team. She knew they were worried about her but, frankly, Nell didn't give a damn. She would tell Callen exactly where to shove his concern if he tried to ask her to go home.

As it was, it was Kensi who came over this time; the team had been taking it in turns, it seemed, to check on her.

"Nell, Deeks is going to the coffee machine, you want anything?" Kensi asked, hesitantly placing a hand on the young analysts shoulder.

"I'm fine," Nell answered, refusing to look up at the agent. When Nell had first arrived after racing to the hospital with Hetty, Kensi hadn't had chance to clean herself and so was still covered in warm and dripping blood. Eric's blood.

Nell had raced into the bathrooms to throw up; it was one thing seeing her partner shot and bleeding on a giant screen but another thing entirely to see one of her friends covered in the blood that should by all rights still be inside of Eric. Somehow, seeing Kensi like that made everything real.

"It's going to be okay Nell," Kensi whispered, rubbing small circles into the analyst's back.

"You don't know that."

"Deeks, shut up. He's going to be fine," the agent hissed at her partner who was crouching down in front of Nell.

"We don't know anything, all we have is hope and I'm starting to lose that now," Deeks yelled, reaching forward to take Nell's hands and hold them.

"Deeks, stop it," Callen warned, moving closer to the small group.

"I agree with Mr Callen here, there's no need to upset the poor girl," Hetty chimed in.

"No," Deeks shouted, barely even looking at the others, instead catching and holding Nell's gaze and watching as tears began filling the analyst's eyes again. "I'm not going sugar-coat things for you, I never have and I never will. We don't know how bad this is and no one is telling us anything. Nell, I won't tell you that everything will be okay; we don't know that. I can tell you that I'm here for you." By this point, Nell was unable to hold back her tears, letting them flow freely over her cheeks; the analyst slid off of the chair and onto the floor where Deeks was waiting to catch her.

Pulling her tighter into the embrace, Deeks ran his hand over the back of Nell's head as she gripped the back of his shirt like it was a lifeline.

"Just breathe, Nell," Deeks repeated, over and over, "I'm still here, you're still here; we're both okay. I'm not going to let go."

* * *

"Nell? Nelly, wake up. The doctors are here," Deeks spoke, shaking the analyst slightly.

"Huh?" Rubbing her eyes, trying to chase away the last remnants of sleep, Nell looked up at the detective, trying to work out what he meant. Working it out, Nell ran a hand through her hair, trying to smooth down the mess she knew it would be as she jumped up and walked over to the woman she assumed was the doctor.

"Family of Eric Beale?" the woman asked.

"The closest thing he has to it, I'm his emergency contact: Nell Jones."

Glancing at a chart, checking the information, the woman nodded. "Of course. I'm Dr Linton, I operated on Mr Beale.-"

"How is he?" Nell interrupted, more interested in the outcome of the operation that who did what.

"He's out of surgery, Miss Jones. It was touch-and-go for a while in there. We lost him twice on the table but he'd pulled through the surgery. I won't lie to you and tell you that this is it; Mr Beale will have a long way to go before he fully recovers."

"But he'll live right?" Deeks asked, putting his arm around Nell.

"With a bit of luck, yes. He's currently being moved to a room as we speak. He'll still be under the effects of the anaesthetic for a while; we're keeping him sedated for his own good right now but you should be able to visit him briefly now," Dr Linton concluded, telling them the room number and the correct floor before leaving the group.

Making their way upstairs, beaming at the fact that Eric had made it through the surgery at all, the group felt some of the tension from earlier wear off. Sam and Callen were able to joke about how Eric was a lucky SOB, Kensi, started telling Deeks about all the junk food she'd have to sneak in for the operator and Hetty nodded, smiling at the agents concern, knowing herself how bad hospital food was.

Nell, however, was far more hesitant to join in with the rest of the team, instead waiting to see Eric with her own two eyes, see him breathing and heart beating and _alive_.

Nell wasn't sure what she was expecting when she walked into the small room her partner was being kept in. She doubted that this was it.

Eric was hooked up to monitors and drips and alarms, he was covered in bandages, his chest bare and glasses waiting on top on the bedside table for him to use. The part-time surfer looked paler than she had ever seen him, including the one time she accidentally gave him food poisoning.

"He looks cold," Nell announced as the rest of the group stood staring at their injured comrade.

"You're right," Hetty agreed, moving forward to grab the blanket on the left side of the bed. Nell, catching on to the shorter woman's idea, went to the right side and between the two of them they managed to pull the blankets up and over the technical operators shoulders.

"Sleep well, Mr Beale. You did an excellent job today," Hetty whispered, brushing the curls back from Eric's forehead in an oddly maternal manner before breaking away from the group, bidding them goodbye.

Sam was quick to follow, making excuses about being home for Michelle and his daughter which Nell understood. Callen and Kensi felt awkward watching the injured man sleep, feeling guilty that they didn't protect him better and so the two left, promising to come back soon.

"You going to be okay?" Deeks asked. The detective was the last one of the group left, sat in the cold, plastic chairs next to the analyst who was yet to look away from Eric.

"I'll be fine, don't worry," Nell tried to reassure Deeks. The detective was torn between leaving to get some much needed sleep and sticking around for the woman he thought of as a little sister. "I'll call you when I go home," Nell offered.

And so, eight hours after seeing her partner fall on camera, Nell was alone.

Reaching out, the petite woman grabbed the hand that didn't have an IV attached to it, raising it to her face. Soon enough, tears began flowing as Nell held Eric's hand against her cheek and relived everything that had happened.

"Next time, I'm going. No arguments," Nell told Eric, "I don't think I can do this again. I can't lose you, Eric. Not now, not ever." Turning her head slightly, Nell placed a small, chaste kiss to the back of Eric's hand. "Just, please… Don't do that again, alright? You had me worried," She told him, hovering over the hospital bed, listening to the heart rate monitor and getting comfortable in her chair. She wasn't leaving until her partner open his eyes.

Nell would wait until Eric was awake and aware of what was going on to tell him how she felt. Right now, Eric was alive and for Nell that was enough.

* * *

**A/N2: So, am I forgiven for 'killing' Eric in chapter two? Seriously, I am incapable of killing off characters that I love and so from the beginning this chapter was planned. If you liked it, please leave a review; let me know what you want to see more of! **


	17. Effectiveness

**A/N: And welcome back to another shorter chapter. The fact that this is another Densi chapter is purely coincidental. Also, another experimentation in writing style today, let me know how that one sits with you all. **

**As I mentioned earlier, I am writing each chapter the same day I post it and so, in cases like today, I will end up posting the instalment at 11:45 and only just make my deadline. I wish I had a good excuse for today's tardiness but, I wont lie, I'm hungover as hell. **

**Regardless, I wrote this, I attempted to proof-read it and gave up and now I'm posting it. Hope you enjoy! **

* * *

**17 - Effectiveness **

_**They're both good at what they do, put them together and they're even better. **_

_Bi-Annual Agent Review._

_Dr. Nate Getz._

Latest encounter with the OSP team went well. Agent G Callen is progressing well in developing relationships with others outside the team, still wary of opening up to strangers but has made a real effort in recent endeavours. There are still some barriers to cross, he is a 'tough nut to crack'. According to Agent Callen, his insomnia is becoming more bearable, affecting him less often than in previous years and also notes an improvement in sleep, getting almost three to four hour a night; this in itself is hopeful, suggests that any personal relationships Agent Callen is pursuing is helping to rewrite the trauma of his youth. Still some notable 'protector' traits shown, again, this seems to be ingrained in the man and shouldn't become a problem provided that he is monitored under extreme stress.

Agent Sam Hanna is, as always, 'fine'. Still waiting for some sort of breakthrough with the ex-SEAL; the man has more walls than I thought possible while still maintaining a sense of openness in his personality. This being said, he seems to be coping well, both mentally and physically, during his recovery from the Sidorov incident, May 2013. Hesitant to talk about Michelle Hanna (wife), understandable given her recent decision to re-join the CIA, if only in a smaller role. Agent Hanna's 'protector role' is still very much in play and could, if left with free reign, lead him into danger. I would suggest that Operations Manager Henrietta Lange watches out for any behaviour that could be seen as self-destructive, damaging or harming and for her to notify myself in the event that this behaviour should occur.

Agent Kensi Blye is readjusting to life state-side well, reintegrating herself into the team seamlessly. Her partnership with Detective Martin Deeks seems intact though certain aspects in their personal lives have changed. Though the details of Agent Blye's mission are classified, from the basics I have been able to gather and understand Agent Blye's mild PTSD is to be expected; the ordeal that the agent has been through is enough to break even the strongest of men and so it is with great personal pride that I am able to report that Agent Blye is receiving help and is, slowly, finding her way back. From what has been reported during personal interviews with Agent Blye, it is apparent the Detective Deeks has played an active role in helping Agent Blye get the support she needs at this time. I will be keeping a close eye on her myself, acting as a councillor, psychologist and friend for as long as is necessary. Operations Manager Henrietta Lange has agreed to monitor Agent Blye's progress in during her recovery period and will contact myself immediately if she feels a psychological intervention is needed.

Though Detective Martin Deeks in a liaison officer for the Los Angeles Police Department and therefore, technically, not an agent Operations Manager Henrietta Lange personally asked me to conduct a psychological evaluation with him. I believe this is due to his involvement in Agent Blye's personal and professional life. Detective Deeks is, understandably, happier to have his partner back full-time; he is patient and kind, willing to wait for Agent Blye to come to terms with issues on her own before stepping in to assist. As this was Detective Deeks' first evaluation I attempted to explore all aspects of the detective's approach to work. After getting the chance to briefly work with Detective Deeks, I can compare his performance three months ago with what I have seen in the past week when partnered with Agent Blye.

Detective Deeks has a unique skills set and an even stranger execution of said skills; relying heavily on humour and quick-wit. This could lead to miscommunication or unnecessarily aggravating one's partner but in Detective Deeks' case, in his partnership with Agent Blye, this laid-back approach to work and life in general is complimented by the agent.

Agent Kensi Blye and Detective Martin Deeks possess a partnership like no other, perfectly accentuating the other skills and making up for anything the other may lack. Their communication skills have progressed and improved dramatically since the last review and, objectively, I feel that separating the two permanently would not only be damaging what I can only term as a 'perfect partnership' but also damaging the confidence in both Detective Deeks and Agent Blye's own abilities. Alone, both parties are incredibly gifted in their own rights but together, the duo excels in their field.

I look forward to seeing how these new personal and professional alterations affect the dynamics of the team in six months time.

* * *

**A/N2: So, how was it? I think tomorrow is another team fic and, finger-crossed, I'll have it up earlier than today's piece.**


	18. Office

**A/N: So this one is a little longer than yesterdays but it is later and I am so sorry for this. Got an audition coming up in a few weeks and so time has been spent working on perfecting my piece, coursework and essays while trying to find time to write more instalments for this and remember to feed myself and sleep. God, my life is glamorous. **

**Quick word about this chapter. First, we have more team fic with some actual interactions today. Secondly, some of the superheroes I picked may not quite work but I tried to go with well known ones. Basic _Marvel_ knowledge may help here, if you've seen _Avengers Assemble_, that wouldn't hurt either. Third, more hints at Eric's backstory; roll with it because I'm really looking forward to writing that chapter now. **

**And now, what you came here for, chapter 18. Enjoy! **

* * *

**18 - Office**

_**Sitting in her small corner of the Mission, she could could see everything. **_

Seven years ago, when Eric Beale first joined the OSP team as a probationary technical operator, he'd joked that his new pint-sized boss was a ninja. At the time, Hetty had simply glared at the smart-mouth hacker and politely asked him to get back to work.

After working with Agent Callen for a few months, the young agent had plucked up the courage to ask how Hetty moved around the building like a ghost, a skill that Callen himself possessed to some extent but paled in comparison to the elder woman.

It had taken Agent Hanna nearly a year to stop jumping every time Hetty 'magically' appeared, whereas Nate Getz still jumped every single time. Kensi saw what Eric had dubbed as the elder woman's Houdini impression once and accepted it without question; Nell Jones was another woman who accepted the vanishing act without pause, never once asking how or why. The young analyst had been developing her own 'ninja-like, magician skills' as Detective Deeks once referred to them, something that Hetty was proud to see the young woman not only accomplish but a certain sense of flair.

Standing on the balcony, Hetty laughed at the many jokes the detective had tried to make about what was essentially light footwork, an impeccable sense of timing, knowing where to stand and an ability to blend into a crowd in plain sight.

As it was, the Operations Manager was currently watching over her team; the agents and liaison officer had returned from a relatively simple case and so were in the awkward procrastination phase of filling out paperwork.

"I'm just saying, if we were superheroes, Callen would not be Iron Man," Deeks announced, throwing his hands up.

"Why not? Please don't tell me you think you'd be Iron Man?"

"You kiddin' me? With hair like that you'd be that blonde one?" Sam added, laughing.

"I assume by 'blonde one' you mean Thor and, hello! God of Thunder, who wouldn't want that! Kens, hottest Avenger, go," the detective shouted out, drawing his partner into the conversation.

"Hawkeye," Kensi answered, not looking up.

"Exactly, wait, what? No, you were meant to agree with me."

"Sounds like you're the one with the crush on Thor," Callen chimed in, smirking at Kensi's unwillingness to join in with the conversation despite knowing that she was the one who started Deeks off with the superhero movies.

"Look, if we were the Avengers, I would be Thor, Callen, you'd be Captain America and, Sam, you'd be the Hulk," Deeks dictated, proud of his choices.

"If you're not careful, you're gonna find out why you should make me angry," Sam mock warned.

"Why am I the really old guy?" Callen asked, rolling his chair back from his desk and closing his laptop, work forgotten in favour of continuing their current discussion.

"Guys," Kensi shouted, putting down the pencil she'd been chewing absent minded, "I think you're forgetting something here; who would I be? And don't you dare say 'Black Widow'," Kensi warned, cutting off her partner before he had a chance to speak.

"Are you all talking about what I think you're talking about?" Nell asked from halfway up the stairs, Eric just behind her.

"You're discussing superheroes without me!" Eric yelled, clearly excited about the current topic of conversation.

"Eric," Deeks called out in greeting, happy to have someone as invested in his hypothetical superhero conversation, "Help me explain to Callen here why he'd be Captain America and not Iron Man if we were the Avengers."

"Which we're not," Sam reminded Deeks, yet again.

"Sure, it's an honour thing. Cap was a solider, a one-man army and fought for justice. He kept fighting when no one else would, never gave in and after living in isolation found a team to fight with and became a leader and a hero," Eric explained, feeling awkward with the way Callen was looking at him.

"Okay," Callen nodded, "I can live with that. Who would you be?"

"Who, me?"

"Yeah, come on, Eric. Which Avenger would you be and why?" Deeks asked, leaning forward, happy to have people join in with this idea.

"I guess I'd be SpiderMan. He was just a regular guy, only reason he became a hero was an accident," Eric shrugged.

"He was also loyal and just and devoted, not to mention ridiculously smart; he invented his only weapon. Spiderman didn't give up when everyone else thought it was hopeless, he kept going; he's stronger than anyone ever gave him credit for," Nell stepped up, placing a hand on her partners forearm, trying to convey what she couldn't put into words.

"With great power there must also come-"

"Great responsibility," the team joined in with Deeks, the agents putting on a sense of being forced.

"Okay, let's say I'm willing to carry on with this, who would Nell be?" Sam asked.

"Tough one, I'm not sure," Deeks began before being cut off by Eric.

"You kidding me? She'd be Black Widow!"

Turning to look at her partner, eyes wide, Nell spoke up before anyone else on the team had a chance to question Eric's outburst. "Excuse me?"

"I just mean," the operator spoke, lacking the confidence from his earlier statement, "That if you were an Avenger you'd be incredible, you'd be smart and you'd be bad-ass, no doubt. There's really only one option."

"Plus, you'd look hot in that cat suit," Deeks spoke up, trying to take the attention away from an awkward looking Eric.

"I think you're all still forgetting something. If Nell is the Black Window then who am I?" Kensi asked feeling left out.

"Come on, Fern. You'd be Wonder Woman; Princess Diana; Warrior princess from the Amazon."

"I know who she is, Deeks," Kensi huffed. "She wasn't in the movie though."

"You could always swap With Sam," Deeks suggested, laughing at the looks both his partner and the ex-SEAL got at this idea.

"I think we're good," Kensi rushed.

"There's just one thing left then," Eric announced, looking at the team and imagining their superhero counterparts, "Who would Hetty be?"

"I think it would be wise to leave that question unanswered, don't you, Mr Beale?" Hetty spoke, having stepped out of her vantage spot from the balcony and descended halfway down the stairs before the team had noticed.

Walking away to her small office to brew some tea, the elder woman smiled to herself as she heard Deeks remark that Hetty could take on the entire Avengers initiative single handed and still walk away unscathed.

* * *

**A/N2: So? How was it? I tried to keep this in character but I feel like I really went off the rails near the end. Sam and Callen are just too hard to recreate perfectly, I can never quite capture that sense of banter and bromance but that doesn't stop me trying. **

**Also, points for guessing my all-time favourite superhero. Points don't make prizes but kudos to you if you get it. **

**Please remember to review. It's now 2AM and I have just under four hours until I have to be up again...**


	19. Shots

**A/N: I'd hoped to get this up earlier than now but I've been ridiculously busy and have only just found both time and a decent enough internet connection to do so. **

**Hope you like this one, a little different and darker than the last few have been. Starts out with a much younger Eric Beale here, back when he first started working at OSP; again, please just roll with the way I write him hear. There are more hints at the backstory, head-cannon I'm creating for him. **

**Anyway, I'm going to quit stalling here. Enjoy! **

* * *

**19 - Shots **

_**Eric will never admit it but the first time he heard gunshots, he jumped. **_

The first time Eric Beale heard a gun in Ops, he was most definitely not prepared. Startled by the loud noise of a firearm, which was held far too close to whichever unnamed agent he was assisting at the time, the technical operator jerked out of his seat and ripped the Bluetooth earpiece away. If his initially reaction wasn't bad enough, the technical operator decided to throw the offending piece of technology at the doors that in some cruel twist of fate decided that that moment was the best possible time to open and for Agent Sam Hanna to walk through. To add further insult to injury, the small communications device hit the ex-SEAL squarely in the forehead.

Eric had never felt so completely betrayed by technology or as fearful for his life.

* * *

After almost a year working in L.A. as part of the OSP and gaining the trust of Hetty, Callen and Sam, Eric was taught how to fire a gun. It wasn't like Eric had never seen a gun or stood by as one was fired. Eric knew the weight of the small weapon in his hand, knew the damage it could cause and knew that the 'pint-sized ninja', as he initially referred to his petite boss, and Agent Callen were watching him. Slowly, carefully, lifting the loaned weapon, Eric took aim, adjusting his posture slightly. Relaxed his grip, focused on the target, took in a deep breath and let it out again. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

"Anytime now, Mr Beale."

Squeezing the trigger, ready for the recoil and feeling an ache in his shoulders that he knew all too well, Eric closed his eyes, not wanting to see where the bullet had landed.

Without opening his eyes, the technical operator removed his safety googles and ear-protectors, placing them down on the small counter in front of him before turning around. Finally opening his eyes, Eric saw Hetty looking at him with something akin to pride whereas Callen was openly starring with his mouth wide open.

"How did you even..." Callen began, trailing off and gesturing at the target sheet behind him.

Twisting briefly, Eric caught a glimpse of the paper figure, one bullet hole just to the left of the small, grey, centre circle. "Must have been a lucky shot," he lied. Eric had to get out of there now, no good would come from giving him a gun; no good ever came from guns.

* * *

The sound of gunfire had always made the technical operator a little uneasy. Since the age of six when a young Eric Beale had first heard the sound of shots in the dark, he'd always been fearful of the sound and the associations he had with it.

Unfortunately, growing up and working in Ops on a daily basis, Eric had been forced to swallow his fears and accept the sound of gunfire as part of an almost daily routine; of course the grown man didn't flinch or freeze up as he once did but if Hetty or Nell just so happened to notice the way the technical operator would stumble momentarily, eyes closed and wincing when the shots were numerous and close, neither woman mentioned it.

* * *

"Nell?" No answer.

"Nell!" Still nothing.

Typing furiously, calling Callen and Sam while running from one side of Ops to the other, Eric tried to ignore the way his hands had begun to shake and the irregular rhythm his heart had adopted.

"Eric, what's happening?" Sam asked, answering the built-in call software of the Challenger.

"Nell, she… I can't get her to- Deeks was," Eric tried and failed to explain the events of the past few minutes, gradually getting more and more frustrated with himself until Hetty stepped in. As Hetty relayed the information to her two senior agents, Eric relived the moment when he realised what Nell was thinking.

That Nell was willing to walk into a fire-fight with no back-up to save Deeks. That Nell, his partner, an Intelligence Analyst, was walking into the dragon's den and there was nothing Eric could physically do to keep her safe. The moment when Nell's button camera feed cut out and all the technical operator could focus on was the sound of her rapid breathing and gunshots.

Reliving the moment when Nell shouted apologies at Eric over the comms and raced over to Deeks, or so she told him.

The sound of a bullet hitting flesh and the sound of his partner calling out, the air knocked from her lungs. Clenching his fists tightly, nails almost breaking the skin on his palms, Eric tried to focus on something, anything other than the sound of static from Nell's feed and the way his heart was now clenched painfully.

"We're here," Callen called out over the group comms, "I think we can see them now."

* * *

Eric barely registered the elder man speaking at all. All he could focus on was the sound of shots being fired.

"Don't you ever do that again," Eric announced, not even waiting for Nell to finish making her way over to him; instead, getting impatient he crossed the distance between them in three strides and pulled her to him, eager to feel his partner real and alive and safe within the safety of his arms.

"Eric, I-" Nell started, pulling back slightly to look at her partner before being interrupted.

"No," not letting Nell leave the embrace, Eric pulled her closer still, dipping his head down to rest in the crook of her neck. "Promise me you won't do that again. No more close calls. _Please_," Eric begged, voice breaking slightly.

"I… I'll try."

"Good enough," Eric whispered, placing a small, chaste kiss to his partners pulse point. "I thought I'd lost you."

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Wolfram," Nell smiled, hands raised and holding on tightly to the technical operator.

The first time Eric had ever heard a gun, he jumped, startled by the noise. The second time, Eric honestly feared for his life. Feared he'd lose himself. His friends.

Nothing compared to the fear he felt for his partner today at hearing the sound.

* * *

**A/N2: Not too sure about this one, please let me know what you think. **

**Also, special chapter for tomorrow, although my the time this finally gets posted it will most likely be today. Stay tuned for that, hoping to make it a longer one... **


	20. Combining

**A/N: And so, here we are. Officially halfway through and so, because of that, I left a little present here for all the Neric fans. Again, and I don't know how important this one is to stress but, each and every one of these little chapters are related. When I'm finished it will make more sense and so this chapter will have a part two which will be chapter twenty-seven. That will then go on to connect to chapter two and chapter sixteen, in that order. Yes this is confusing but when I'm finished, everything pieces together neatly. **

**Also, as I'm halfway done now, I thought I would take that time for some self-promotion. If you are enjoying my works and would like to see more of it, be kept up to date with my latest postings and new chapters you can follow me on Twitter under the name **_ Gemma30185**. **_**I rant and rave and fangirl on there so if you want to talk or find out more about what's coming up next, it's a good place to check out. **

**But now, I bring you the latest instalment of this story, enjoy!**

* * *

**20 - Combining **

_**When you put two such strong-willed people together, it's inevitable that they'll explode in some way or another. **_

Nell was quickly learning that, despite years of hating each and every early wake-up call, mornings were quickly becoming her favourite part of the day. Especially mornings at her apartments after she'd convince Eric that it would just be easier for him to stay at hers, that he had a change of clothes in a bag in the back of his truck and that it was no trouble at all. Mornings after she'd convinced Eric that sleeping in a real bed would be much more comfortable than falling asleep on the couch again and realising that her partner had barely argued against the idea this time.

Mornings when Nell could feel Eric's arms wrapped around her, unwilling to let her go even in his sleep, where she could feel his breath fanning out against her neck and could pin-point the exact point that he began to wake up.

Yes, mornings like that were Nell's favourite.

"I know you're awake," Eric croaked, voice hoarse from sleep.

Smiling slightly, Nell wiggled in bed, turning around to face her partner and seeing him beaming back at her. "It's too early to be awake," the redhead complained, mock-pouting.

Eric merely shook his head at the half-hearted complaint before letting go of Nell, rolling over to lay on his back and stare at the ceiling. _She's your friend,_ Eric thought, _just a friend. You have to stop this._ Repeating the mantra in his head, the technical operator didn't notice his partner watching him, marvelling at the way the colours from the sunrise painted colours across his face, painting the most beautiful picture the part-time surfer who, for once, wasn't wearing his glasses.

Smiling, Nell shifted in the bed once again to lie down on her back beside her partner, hand reaching out to take his hand; feeling brave, she began tracing nonsensical patterns over his palm.

* * *

At home, Eric was brave. He could be around Nell and not blurt out the most awkward things he could think of, he could be charming and witty and at times he felt less like a partner or best friend and instead felt like something much more in the eyes of a certain Intelligence Analyst.

Unfortunately, Eric seemed to lose this ability the moment he walked through the doors of the Mission.

"You can't go," Eric said, finally speaking up.

Turning around, hardly able to believe just what her partner had just said, Nell simply raised an eyebrow, expecting Eric to explain himself.

The team had landed a case that morning involving three dead Marines and two technical assistants, all working on a new, Top-Secret government project codenamed Wallflower; with information that a supercomputer that was at the heart of the project had been taken by terrorists, time was of the essence. With very little to go on and no real idea as to what, exactly, Project Wallflower entailed, Callen had come up with a plan to use Nell as bait, to lure out the terrorist group responsible for taking the computer.

Nell, more than willing to prove herself, had agreed to the plan; she would be taken and tasked with finding out where the technology had been taken, who was behind the killings and theft and what the group wanted out of Project Wallflower. A walk in the park, as she'd told Callen.

"I just meant," Eric spoke up, avoiding looking at Nell and instead directing his words to Callen, "That maybe sending someone with more training and experience than Nell might be a good idea. What if it gets dangerous?"

"I'll have a-"

"She'll have a gun," Callen interrupted, "Deeks will be there as back-up and Sam and I will be watching. We'll keep her safe," Callen told the younger man, voice dropping slightly at the end, guessing the heart of the problem.

"Eric, I can do this," Nell said, voice clipped in annoyance, angered that her partner didn't believe in her. "I'll be ready in 20 minutes, just let me finish this programme in Ops," gesturing to her tablet and waiting for Callen's nod.

Leaving the group without looking back or waiting for Eric, Nell returned to Ops, fists clenched and mentally reciting the Fibonacci sequence, trying to calm herself down. Despite everything she'd done, everything Eric had seen her do, all her training and work, Eric didn't trust her. Eric didn't believe that she was capable of taking care of herself in the field, regardless of the basic agent training that Kensi had been putting her through before leaving to Afghanistan.

Honestly, the thought that Eric didn't trust in her abilities, in _her_, hurt. It hurt a lot more than the intelligence analyst was willing to admit.

Nell heard the doors open and could practically feel her partners gaze as he sat down beside her but chose to ignore it.

Waiting for Nell to look up, Eric studied the petite red-head as she worked. She was angry, anyone could see that, but Eric could also tell that she was hurt by the way she kept biting her bottom lip. The glow of the computer monitor highlighted each and every curve of her face and Eric couldn't help but feel the panic and worry bubble back up inside of him.

"I don't want you to go."

"Eric, don't. Just let me finish this," Nell spoke, not looking up from the keyboard, hitting the keys harder than necessary.

"It's not that you- I want you to… I just think that," Stumbling over his words, Eric took in a deep breath, determined to find the perfect words for how he was feeling.

"Eric, you don't have to-"

"I was scared," the technical operator shouted, interrupting his partner, determined to get the words out. Dropping his shoulders and head, Eric spun his chair to face his partner fully, wanting to explain his outburst as well as he would. "I was scared about you, Nell."

"You don't have to worry about me!" Nell shouted, not wanting to hear her partner try and explain.

"Dammit, I'm sorry, what else do you want from me?" Eric asked, standing up and running his hands through his hair; he was mad at Nell for not understanding him, for not being able to finish his sentences the one time he wanted, needed, her to but mostly he was angry with himself for being a coward and not being able to come clean about his growing feelings for the red-head standing before him.

"What do I want? I want to know what the hell you were thinking!" Nell shouted, glad that Ops was suspiciously empty for once.

"I thought I was helping!" Eric yelled, moving closer to his partner.

"I don't _need_ your help, Eric."

"Fine then."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Great."

Unwilling to let Nell have the final word in the argument, Eric grabbed his partners arm, pulling her into him before bowing his head to kiss her. Raising his free hand to cup her jaw, Eric tried to pour everything he was feeling in the kiss, how he was scared of her not coming back or getting hurt. How truly afraid he was of losing possibly the only person he'd ever been able to consider his equal.

Tilting his head, deepening the kiss, Eric got lost in the feel of his partner; the way their lips meshed and fit perfectly, the small half-moan, half-gasp she let out as he bit her lower lip and the way she seemed to follow him as he began to pull back.

"Please be careful," Eric whispered, resting his forehead against hers. "I need you to… You have to be here, Nell. I need you _here_," He told her, willing her to understand that he meant more than just returning to Ops.

"Eric, I-"

"I almost thought, I thought we'd lost you once. I can't do that again. Please, Nell, you promised."

"I'll come back, Eric. I promise."

"Thank you," Eric sighed, closing his eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Eric opened his eyes and looked at his partner, moving back and letting her go.

"We're going to have to talk about this, aren't we?" He asked.

"Later."

"Okay then," Eric nodded, "You should probably get going."

"I'll see you soon," Nell told her partner as he sat down at the computer terminal.

Nell had made it all the way to the door before turning around to spin the office chair her partner was sat in and place one last, lingering kiss to his lips. "I will be back, Wolfram," she told him before walking out of Ops without looking back.

Smiling and raising his hand to rub his thumb across his lips, feeling the slightest hints of his partners chap stick, Eric sat back down, facing the computer, ready to help his partner in any way she would need. "Good luck, Nell."

* * *

**A/N2: Well, what did you all think? I'm blown away by the support I get by you guys and honest feedback is one of the greatest gifts you could ever give to me. **


	21. Research

**A/N: So much for just a small chapter, eh? **

**The song that Eric sings is a real song, it's been stuck in my head for days and it's awful. Want to hear what the inside of my head sounds like? Go listen to "**#SELFIE**" by _The Chainsmokers_. I feel like Kensi is influencing my music tastes way too much nowadays. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**21 - Research**

_**He's always avoided the library, being more of a comic book guy, but somehow she manages to get him to pick up a book.**_

Eric had been left to his own devices as his partner picked up the phone call from her mother.

"You can keep going if you want," she told him, gesturing to the latest game test Ozzy and Justin. "No, Ma, I was talking to Eric. Yeah, he's … No it's not like that. _Mom!_ Oh God, please don't just," covering the phones microphone, Nell, cheeks burning bright red, turned to the technical operator, "I'll just be a minute, sorry."

"No worries, hi Mrs Jones," Eric shouted at the phone, laughing at the small and distorted response he could hear as Nell practically bolted out of the living room.

The pair had decided to head over to Nell's apartment after work, picking up take-out on the way and had been talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Nell had been trying to take a decent picture of the two of them, claiming that they didn't have a lot of nice pictures together while Eric argued that the forty pictures of them stored on his tablet after the last camera session said otherwise.

Nell had pulled out her camera phone, opening Instagram when Eric pulled her into his lap, finger dancing across his partner's ribs, knowing how ticklish she was while singing some ridiculous song he'd heard on the radio a few days ago.

"Let me take a selfie!" The technical operator sang, beaming at the red-head in her arms who was gasping for breath, crying out for him to stop.

Unfortunately, the fun was cut short when Nell's phone began ringing and without thinking, the analyst answered the call, out of breath and laughing.

And so, of course, when her mother heard that she was with Eric, the older woman immediately jumped to the wrong conclusions.

Eric watched as his partner ran into her room and tried not to listen as Nell tried to rationalise what had happened earlier; feeling slightly bad for adding fuel to the fire as far as Nell's mother was concerned, the technical operator decided to try and keep quiet. Leaving the game paused; Eric began wandering around the room, clearing away empty wrappers and plates before running out of things to do.

Looking around the room, Nell's large bookcase caught his eye. He knew his partner was an avid reader, a hobby that had become more pronounced during her unplugged weekends last year. Trailing his fingers over the spines, Eric read the titles, tilting his head to the side. Classics, science fictions, bright colours, volumes, trilogies and sets, large leather bound books and books that were obviously old and well loved; the man had to admit that his partner had developed an impressive collection over the years. Eric was more of a comic book guy himself, avoiding the library in favour of heading over to the comic store; he appreciated the written word but never understood how Nell could sit for hours and just read words, Eric had a need to stay active and busy.

Eric was just about to turn away from the bookshelves when something caught his eye. There, tucked away at the very end of the shelf was the thinnest book of them all by far, the book was so small that he couldn't even make out the title across the spine. Checking quickly to make sure Nell wasn't about to pull some sort of ninja move that Hetty would be proud of, Eric attempted to pull the book out.

It took a few seconds and given the way Nell packed all her books on the shelf so tightly, Eric had to pull out the book next to it to finally reach his prize.

Lifting out the reading material, Eric shook his head and smiled fondly; every time he thought he'd figured out his partner, she'd throw him another curveball. Moving back to the couch, Eric opened the book at hand, reading the title aloud.

"_The Very Hungry Caterpillar._"

In less than three minutes Eric had read the book cover to cover, the size 18 font and large pictures making quick work of the piece of fiction before him. Re-reading the basic book, Eric didn't notice his partner return to the living room.

"Going through my things again, Beale?" Nell asked, eyebrow raised and small smile in place.

"Nell, I, um, sorry. You were gone and I didn't know what to do. I hope you don't-"

"It's fine, Eric," Nell interrupted, placing a hand on her partners forearm as she sat down next to him on the small couch. "Why are you reading that anyway?"

"It was the only outlier. The rest of your books have words, this one had pictures," he added, one-sided smile spreading across his face. "Why do you even have this?"

"Because it's my favourite," Nell answered honestly. Chancing a look at her partner and catching his confused expression, Nell knew she'd have to explain herself. "When I was a kid, the other children would make fun of me; teasing me, calling me names for being smarter or for my hair or my family." Taking a deep breath, Nell tried to find the words to explain the children's book her partner was now practically cradling.

"You don't have to carry on," Eric said, turning his torso to face her.

"No, it's fine. Anyway, one day I came home from school and David was there; he saw me crying."

Eric noticed the glassy expression Nell had every time she mentioned her older brother; David was still a sore subject for the petite analyst.

"So, David asks me what's wrong and I told him about the bullies at school, how I never ever wanted to go back he laughed at me. I was so mad at him for laughing but he just pulled me upstairs to his room and gave me this, spent nearly five minutes searching under his bed for it. Told me that I was just like the little caterpillar; that right now, no one understood me, who I was or why I was so different but one day I'd shine. That I'd grow up and be something amazing," Nell finished, sniffing loudly, holding back tears.

"He was right, Nell. You _are_ amazing."

"Thanks," the analyst whispered, leaning over to rest her head on her partners shoulder and smiling when she felt his arm wrap around her, pulling her closer.

Turning to the very last page, one that Eric had previously thought blank and skipped, Nell showed him the message addressed to her:

_Hey there, little butterfly. _

_I hope you never get to this page but if you are here then know that I loved you and didn't stop fighting. I'll see you again one day, take care little sis. _

_Semper Fi,_

_David._

"This was what he'd left to me in the will. No one could understand why I was crying so much; it was his book."

"He loved you."

"Yeah, he did. You would have liked him. He was probably the only Marine who didn't like guns."

"Tell me about him," Eric prompted, wanting to know more about the fabled David that his partner so rarely spoke of.

"…He was a terrible guitar player," Nell started, struggling to think of a decent beginning, a decent way to describe and honour her older brother.

The two sat on the small couch, talking for what seemed like hours about David and Eric couldn't help but send out a small prayer, despite not being religious, thanking the fallen Jones brother for taking such good care of his partner during her youth and for helping her become the incredible woman he now knew.

* * *

**A/N2: Okay, a few things about this chapter. One, _A Very Hungry Caterpillar_ is one of my favourite books and I am an adult, don't judge. **

**Secondly, this chapter is dedicated to my cousin, David. He was more of a brother to me than anyone and I still miss him like crazy. He was a soldier and the best man you would ever meet and even with my love of the written word, I could spend years looking for the perfect phrase describing him and never find it. I began writing this entire thing as a distraction after the one year anniversary of losing him and, honestly, it's helped. Some of the chapters have been quite cathartic and based on real-life experiences. I'm not saying this for pity but I wanted people to know that David was real and he is gone and he will never be forgotten, not while I'm here. **

**And now, after that essay of an explanation, please leave a review. Let me know if you're liking my backstory hints and what you'd like to see more of... **

**Next chapter, Kensi's return from Afghanistan. **


	22. Return

**A/N: One day I will remember how to write something less than a thousand words. Today, however, is not that day. **

**More Kensi and Deeks fluff here. I honestly believe that when Kensi finally returns there will be a lot of heartbreak, I know a lot of people believe she'll be returning with PTSD and though I think that would be an interesting new turn for the character to take I also believe that the writers will take pity on us; after separating them for months I think we'll get at least something, some sort of nod toward their feelings for one another. That's how I came up with the inspiration for this. **

**Hope you all enjoy this part and thanks to everyone who review to my last chapter. **

* * *

**22 - Return**

_**The pain of her departure was nothing compared to the joy he felt when she came back. **_

It had been almost four months since them team had last seen Kensi and now, after a tense video call from Granger, a race to the airport, the longest plane journey Deeks had ever been on – or so it felt – and a crazy car journey but now, finally, they were so very close to being reunited with their missing teammate.

"Are we almost there yet?"

"Deeks, for the last time," Callen ground out, gritting his teeth, "We will be there when we get there. Now quit asking."

It wasn't that Callen was mad at Deeks, far from it; the senior agent was worried about the missing part of their team but Deeks didn't seem to understand that he wasn't the only one who missed Kensi. Callen had known the woman for years and considered her one of his closest friends. Once upon a time, Callen entertained the thought of something a little less platonic with the female agent but his own self-imposed rules against dating women in law enforcement put an end to that before anything had the chance to start. Now he thought of Kensi as the younger sister that he never really wanted of got to keep, he would do anything to keep the woman safe and knew that Sam played the big brother role around Kensi as well as he did.

"We'll be there soon," Sam told the detective, trying to keep the peace between the cop and agent. Sam was sympathetic to Deeks' feelings, he knew that there was something between Deeks and Kensi and had his suspicions that the two had acted upon them but had never found proof. Sitting in the front of the jeep though, listening to his partner and the shaggy detective argue over the missing agent, Sam began entertaining the thought that what Deeks felt for Kensi went beyond lust and infatuation and was bordering on something a whole lot stronger.

"Okay, I just-"

"We're almost there, actually," the driver called out from the front interrupting Deeks.

Glancing at the detective, Callen thought he saw a hint of a smile or at least a little bit of the hard edges around Deeks' eyes disappear at the news that they were mere minutes away from Kensi.

After what felt like an eternity, the jeep finally pulled up to the large truck serving as Kensi's temporary home and Deeks wasted no time in waiting for car to pull to a stop before jumping out and racing to the trucks. Taking a guess and hoping for a guess, Deeks ran up to the truck on the left, opening the door and running in.

"Detective Deeks, I see you managed to find the place," Granger spoke, voice monotone as always with a hint of barely contained condescension.

"Where is she?" Deeks asked, not wanting to waste time talking to Granger when his partner was so close.

"If you'd been able to wait I would have met you outside. Blye is next door in the medical bay?"

"_Medical bay_?" Deeks asked, voice a whisper.

"Yes, she ran into a bit of-"

Not bothering to listen to the rest of the Assistant Directors explanation, Deeks span on his heel, jogging out of the door he'd just ran through and almost running into Callen and Sam along the way.

"Kensi's next door," Deeks rushed, barely stopping to see if the agents were following.

Reaching the door to the second truck, Deeks didn't hesitate to open the door, holding his breath, hoping to see his partner alive and well on the other side.

Releasing his breath and stepping through the threshold, Deeks looked up to see his partner sitting on a cold looking hospital bed; a split lip and black eye marred his partners face and she was gingerly touching the butterfly stitches over her eyebrow as she looked up.

"Deeks?" The agent asked, hardly able to believe that her partner was really here in Afghanistan with her.

"Yeah, Kens, it's me."

"How did you, why are you?" Stumbling over her words, still trying to get over her shock at seeing her partner in front of her and in the flesh, Kensi struggled to string together a coherent sentence.

"Granger called. Said you'd been taken. I guess he found you."

"Yeah. It was Sabatino who got me out of there but – God, that doesn't matter. You're here; you're all here," Kensi remarked, noticing Callen and Sam for the first time it seemed.

Callen walked over to the hospital bed, pulling Kensi in for a hug, careful not to injure her further, "Did you really think we'd leave you alone?"

"Looks like she can't function without us, G," Sam joked, putting an arm around the woman. " You look like hell."

"Thanks, I feel it," Kensi tried to joke back but didn't quite manage to convince the other agents. She was hurt that Deeks hadn't moved from his spot just inside the door. After four months she at least thought she'd get a hug from her partner but this new, zero-contact policy Deeks seemed to be operating on confused her.

Both Callen and Sam noticed the mounting tension in the trailer but Callen was the one to break it by speaking first. "We should probably go get briefed by Granger, we have a lot to cover."

"It's great to see you again," Sam told the female agent before following Callen out of the door, closing it behind him, leaving Kensi and Deeks alone to talk.

"How are you?" Deeks finally asked after a moment of silence.

"Fine."

"Kensi, don't lie to me."

"…I'm sore, that better," the agent asked, waiting for the small nod of the head from her partner. "I missed you."

"God, I missed you too," Deeks sighed, hands in his pockets and looking up at the woman before him.

"Is something wrong?" Kensi finally asked, sensing her partner's trepidation to move toward her.

"No I just…"

"What?"

"I don't think it's a good idea for me to come any closer."

"Why?" The agent asked, not even bothering to hide the hurt as she stood up from the bed and moving to add the layers of clothing the medic had asked her to remove.

"Because I won't let you go," Deeks announced, face showing no signs that he was joking.

Taking in a deep breath to steady himself before letting it out slowly, Deeks took in his partners shocked expression, the cuts and bruises that marked her skin, the way she held herself. The small quirk of the corners of her mouth at his admission, the way she was trying so hard to hide a smile. The way her hair fell around her face, as if trying to hide his partner from his after so long.

Suddenly, Deeks was a flurry of motion, unable to contain himself her crossed the space between them in four long strides before gathering his partner in his arms, smiling when he felt Kensi's arms move to hold him almost automatically.

"I'm not letting you go, Kensi. I'm never letting you go ever again," Deeks whispered, head buried in the crook of his partners neck.

"Deeks-"

"No, Kens," the detective interrupted, "Granger called and I thought we'd lost you, I thought _I'd_ lost you; I can't lose you, Fern."

Pausing, letting her partners words sink in, Kensi raised her hand to the back of her partners head, stroking the unruly hair, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay," Kensi nodded, laughing at her Deeks' antics, glad to finally be back in her partners arms.

* * *

**A/N2: So there was a little nod to those of you who ship Kensi/Callen; watching the very first episode I can see how that could have been but that idea, to me, was scrapped after a few episode and burned when they brought in Deeks. **

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you did then please drop me a review. There's more Densi coming up in a couple of days. Tomorrow though, we're back to Neric. **


	23. Museum

**A/N: Hope you all like this one, we have the return of Eric the puppy from chapter seven and some more adorable, not-quite-a-relationship Nell and Eric moments. **

**Enjoy! **

* * *

**23 - Museum**

_**"Who would want to look at any of this?" He asked, pointing to an exhibit. **_

At 9AM, Eric had arrived at Nell's building with breakfast for himself and his partner and treats for the still unnamed puppy. Unlike most weeks, Nell was already awake and opening the door to her apartment when the technical operator finally made his way up the four flights of stairs.

"Morning Nell, you okay?" Eric asked, laughing as he brushed the hair away from her face, mocking his partners sleeping habits. Nell, for her part, ignored the question, answering her partner instead with a smirk and tilting her head as she took the sugar filled coffee from the tray Eric was carrying.

Laughing at his partners reluctance to speak before her morning coffee, Eric knelt down to make a fuss over the Jack Russell Terrier cross, "And how are you little guy? You're getting big aren't you?" Eric asked the animal, hands flitting across the dogs neck, chest and back before putting on a voice, pretending the dog was answering his questions. Looking over to the island in the middle of his partners kitchen, Eric saw Nell laughing into her coffee cup, valiantly trying to hide her smile.

"Where are we going today?" Nell finally asked, managing to control her laughing at her partners antics.

"Not sure, maybe the boardwalk or we could check out the market stalls? I thought I'd let you pick."

"How kind of you!" Nell exaggerated, moving to pick up the Styrofoam cup holding Eric's coffee and lifting it, silently asking if he wanted her to pour it in the mug he'd claimed as his.

Shaking his head, Eric bent down to pick up the excitable bundle of fur jumping up around his legs, "Nah, I'm going to go and take Russell here for a walk while you get ready."

"What did you call him?" Nell asked, almost choking on the mouthful of coffee she struggled to swallow.

"Russell… You still haven't given him a name yet so I thought I'd think of something for now until you do. Have you named him yet?" Eric asked, continuing the avenue of questioning he took every time he stayed with his partner and saw the little mutt.

"Nope, nothing yet," Nell answered quickly, "I'm going to go shower." Running out of the room, trying to avoid Eric's gaze at her fast response, Nell jumped into the bathroom.

Eric, at hearing the shower turn on and realizing that his partner was very naked and only in the next room, quickly became flustered and left the flat, rushing down the stairs with the cross-breed in his arms.

* * *

The pair had made it to the pier, thankfully, with no more awkward moments. Unfortunately though, the moment Eric opened the passenger side door and offered a hand to help his partner out of the truck he drove the first drops of rain began falling. Fat, wet drops hitting their heads, plastering Nell's fringe to her forehead, flattening Eric's curls and obscuring the taller man's vision after hitting his glasses.

For a few glorious minutes the partners stood in the middle of the sidewalk, heads titled up toward the skies and laughing at the all too rare rain in L.A.; spinning around, Nell fell into her partner's chest. Eric took this in his stride though, wrapping his arms around the petite woman's waist and lifting her up, feet leaving the ground as he span her around, the sound of her laugh lifting Eric's spirits higher than he thought possible.

Eventually, Eric set Nell back on the ground, keeping one arm wrapped around his partner and lifting the other to push back the wet hair from her face. Nell's hands began trailing up the part-time surfer's chest, fingers tracing over defined muscle barely hidden by wet clothes and rain soaked skin before lifting Eric's glasses from his face. The rain had almost completely covered the spectacles, making it hard for the technical operator to see. Eric held his breath as Nell's free hand ghosted back over his jaw.

"Can you see now?" Nell asked, voice only just above a whisper.

Eric, not trusting his voice simply nodded; he could see his partner but anything further away was a bit more of a struggle.

"Come on," the intelligence analyst called, grabbing her partners hand and running away, pulling Eric behind her.

Deciding to roll with Nell's plan, Eric followed after the red-head, smiling at the sound of her laughter as they crossed the street and ran into the large museum.

Nell left Eric's side for a moment, asking a guard for a cloth to clean the technical operators glasses which he gladly provided, laughing at Eric's misfortune to have been caught in the rain; Eric didn't mind being caught in the rain so much though, especially not when Nell returned and placed the corrective lenses on his face with such care, hands falling down to rest on his shoulders before eventually moving back a step or two. Eric definitely did not mind when he finally managed to take a good look at his partner and the way her floral dress seemed to cling to her every curve. Nope Eric most definitely didn't mind that little detail.

That was, until he saw some of the other men in the lobby area avoiding the rain starring at his partner.

Reaching for Nell's hand without thinking and internally celebrating when instead of pulling away she interlocked their fingers, Eric led Nell to one of the exhibits of the museum.

"Sorry," Eric announced, seemingly out of the blue.

Pausing, confused by her partner's words, Nell stopped, not realising that the action would pull Eric back as their hands were still joined. "What for?"

"I should have checked the weather or something. Now we're stuck in here and I'm sorry."

"Hey, I spend my weekends with you because I like spending time with you. Okay?"

"Sure still, who would want to look at any of this?" He asked, pointing to an exhibit.

"Come on, Beale. I'm sure we can find something we like," Nell laughed, squeezing her partners hand and smiling as she felt his thumb run back and forth across the back of her hand.

And so, that was how Eric Beale and Nell Jones found themselves walking around the library, standing closer than 'just friends' would and laughing at the old oil paintings and marvelling at the Darwinism and dinosaur exhibits, never one letting go of the others hand.

* * *

**A/N2: Hope you all like that, just a little something short and sweet. I was amazed at the response I received for the last two chapters and would love if you could all keep that up, letting me know where I'm going right and what you enjoy, as well as what you don't like, is the only way I can improve this story, overall...**


	24. Familiarity

**A/N: Okay, so some of you may want to start yelling about how out of character Callen is now but, as an actual insomniac myself, the weird, trippy section of not sleeping has led me to stranger ideas than this. I don't know if everyone goes through that phase but I know that I do and so tried to stick to what I know while branching out and writing Neric from Callen's viewpoint. **

**I do hope you enjoy it though... **

* * *

**24 - Familiarity**

_**They know each other better than anyone else. **_

Callen had once joked, a long time ago, that his boss and Operations Manager of the Office of Special Projects, Henrietta Lange was a robot.

It wasn't without a great deal of thought that he made this observation either. With her uncanny ability to appear, seemingly out of thin air, her vast and all-encompassing knowledge and sometimes just the way she watched the team, when coupled with almost two days without sleep forced Callen to come to the least logical solution and accept it as the truth. To this date, Callen still had trouble reminding himself that his boss wasn't an automaton.

Callen had once mocked Eric for being a robot too, for the way the technical operator stuttered and froze when speaking to the agents. Once, after a few sleepless nights, Callen had almost convinced himself that Eric was an extension of the computers the part-time surfer surrounded himself with daily.

Usually, when Callen started getting these weird ideas he kept his mouth shut, threw back three espresso shots and prayed that sleep would come that night; strange observations was Deeks' forte, not his. Knowing his luck, Nate would come in and lock him up, calling him crazy, if he heard the ideas that floated around his head.

Watching Eric and Nell sat at the computer terminals, Callen rubbed his forehead, pinched the bridge of his nose and wished, not for the first time that day, that he'd drank more coffee that morning. Or that he'd slept. Either option really, Callen wasn't a fussy man.

Both the technical operator and the intelligence analyst appeared to be dancing around Ops, performing the most intricate and elaborate dance routines Callen had ever seen. Spinning, turning, ducking, weaving, the everyday actions appeared almost choreographed, as if the two knew their partners next move before they made it.

"I'll be back in a minute," Nell told her partner, standing from her chair and stretching out slightly, feeling stiff from working at the terminal for hours.

Without looking up for the screen he was working on, Eric mumbled a quick 'okay' to his partner before resuming his task, full focus on the keyboard as his fingers flew across the keys.

What Callen didn't seem to realise was that the synchronicity between Nell and Eric wasn't the result of computers or robotics or any one of the other insane ideas that had tried to take root inside the agents mind but simply knowing one another. Eric knew Nell, more than he knew himself he'd say most days and the same was true in reverse; the partners shared a familiarity with each other that the field agents could never hope to have with the technical team.

It was the same way the Sam knew when Callen was and wasn't sleeping or knew to bring in another hand-drawn picture from his daughter for 'Uncle G' when he was feeling down. Just like how Deeks knew when to start storing up Twizzlers in his top draw at work and which candy bar was best suited to which emotional hazard when it came to Kensi.

Callen knew Sam and Sam knew Callen.

Kensi and Deeks knew each other backwards and forwards, inside and out.

They knew each knew the other so well because they were partners. Because they spent all their time at work together and most of their spare time in the others company. It was as if Nell and Eric had become an extension of each other and without even realising what they were doing.

When they were at home, most nights it was at Nell's flat because of the puppy, Eric and Nell had fallen into a routine of cooking and cleaning, setting up games and the table. The two rarely spoke to delegate such tasks, they just fell into them without thinking, each filling in for the other, helping out and stepping back when appropriate. The work was easy between the two of them and neither commented on how domestic the set-up seemed, not wanting to jinx the easy-going routine between the two of them.

After a few minutes, Nell returned to Ops, two mugs in her hands and held one out slightly ahead of her. Without turning around and barely pausing his work, Eric reached out and took the offered mug from his partner. "Thanks, Nell."

"No problems."

Kensi and Deeks walked into Ops, bickering as was the norm between the pair but paused at the sight of Callen studying the technical portion of their team. Standing behind the island near Sam, Kensi, Deeks and the ex-SEAL watched Callen watching Nell and Eric, trying to understand what their leader was seeing.

"Is it the coffee?" Deeks asked, "Because I remember Hetty saying-"

"She's not here," Kensi answered Deeks before the detective had even finished his question.

"Okay then…" Deeks went back to watching Callen, trying to work out what it was that had captured the agent's attention so completely.

For a while, the detective could think of nothing until Nell stood up, patting her sides and turning her head, as if searching for something. Before the analyst found what she was looking for or Deeks could even guess what the missing mystery item was, Eric lifted his hand, holding out a thumb drive to the red-head.

"You can use mine for now, I think you left yours in your jacket this morning," Eric announced, as if finishing his partners thoughts.

"You think they're psychic?" Deeks asked, whispering to his partner, expecting the eye-roll and punch to the shoulder from Kensi.

What Deeks wasn't expecting was for his innocent statement to trigger the thoughts flying around Callen's head again. Perhaps the senior agent was wrong. _What if Nell and Eric never were robots_, he thought to himself, _what if they were psychic all along? I guess it would explain some things._

Shaking his head as Eric turned to talk to the agents gathered in Ops, Callen wished once again that he'd managed to sleep the night before.

* * *

**A/N2: So it was short but was it sweet? Hope that you all liked this and please leave a review if you did, letting me know where to improve and what to expand on. **

**Also, for those of you who still remember Chapter 15, _'Activating'_, you'll be glad to know that part two of that little story will be here tomorrow. Just started outlining my ideas for it now... **


	25. Outcome

**A/N: And so, here we are. The continuation of chapter 15. I got a lot of reviews asking for this one and so here you are, hope this appeases some of you. **

**Enjoy! **

* * *

**25 - Outcome**

_**They make a point to never let arguments drag on, with this job you never know if a mission will be your last. **_

**Five.**

_Rubbing her hand over her face to wipe away the tears, Kensi focused on the lone figure standing at the doors. She'd had so many plans for the two of them. Plans that would now never be. _

**Four. **

**Three.**

"_I love you, Marty," Kensi shouted, unwilling to hold it in. If this were to be the only chance that she had to tell him how she honestly felt then she would take it. She wasn't willing for him to die not knowing just how much she cared because of their terrible communication skills. _

**Two.**

"_Kensi, God. I-"_

**One.**

Inhale.

Exhale.

Wipe tears.

"…Kensi?" The voice came over the line, slow and full of disbelief. Raising a hand, trying to hold in the sob, Kensi screwed her eyes shut, trying to erase the images of the building going up in flames from her mind.

The bomb was faulty.

Deeks was safe.

"Are you okay?" Kensi finally choked out, the lump in her throat distorting her voice.

"Yeah, I, uh, it didn't go off Kens. I'm okay," Deeks answered, struggling to keep his voice level, tears still present and dying to break loose.

"Stay there Deeks, the bomb squad's going to check the doors," Kensi told her partner before the phone was taken by Special Agent Hart.

"You okay in there?" The FBI agent asked, showing genuine concern for the first time that Kensi had seen.

"I am now," the shaggy detective answered, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, head dropping forward.

"You did good in there, Detective. We'll have you out of there in a minute."

"Thank you, sir," Deeks answered, feeling a small smile spread across his face before smiling wider as the doors were finally flung open.

Deeks wasted no time in leaving the cold bank floor behind.

As soon as Deeks was clear of the building, he began searching the crowds for any sign of his partner, gaze flitting from one bystander to the next before finding her, making her way to him through the crowds. The two partners crossed the distance between them in no time and Deeks threw him arms around the agent, lifting her off of the ground slightly. Burying his face into the side of her neck, Deeks held on tighter to Kensi whose own embrace was somehow vice-like and comforting at the same time.

"You're shaking," Kensi told him as he finally set her back down on her feet. "There are paramedics just over there, I'm sure they can-"

"I'm fine," Deeks cut his partner off. "I'll be fine Kens."

Deeks looked down at his partner, noticing her hands playing with the collar of his shirt. Placing one hand under her chin, he tilted Kensi's face to see the tears gathering in her eyes, tears the agent refused to let fall.

"I almost lost you," Kensi whispered, in a voice more fitting for a small child than his bad-ass partner.

"But you didn't, Fern. I'm still here, I'm not going anywhere," Deeks said, smile breaking across his face as her smoother his hand over the agents head, almost as if trying to convince himself that being here with Kensi was real. That he was still alive and that all this was _real_.

Kensi was beginning to give in and lean her hand into her partner's hand, turning to place a small kiss on the palm when Agent Hart appeared behind her.

"Detective, I want you checked out by the paramedics and your report on the events of today as soon as you can," the agent barked out. "No arguments," he added, seeing the detective open his mouth to fight against the orders.

The next few hours passed by in a blur, Kensi had been called in to the Mission to explain the hostage situation and bomb crisis while Eric and Nell worked over time to find the connection between the dead bomb maker and Detective Deeks. The detective in question had been carted off to the hospital for a few butterfly stitches over a cut that Kensi had somehow managed to miss when reunited with her partner.

Before Kensi had chance to over think anything she found herself standing outside of her partners house, arms wrapped tightly around her middle and wishing, not for the first time, that she'd changed into something more substantial than a pair of shorts and a T-shirt she'd stolen from Deeks and was using as sleepwear.

"At least I grabbed a jacket," the agent said to herself, shifting her weight from one leg to the other, waiting for her partner to answer the door.

Just as Kensi was about to leave, Deeks opened the door. From the towel wrapped low around his waist and the beads of water trailing down his chest, and the haphazardly towel dried hair Kensi concluded that Deeks must have been in the shower. Preparing to make apology's, Kensi was shocked as Deeks' arm shot out to grab her before pulling her back to him, kissing her with for all he was worth.

Kensi was in shock to begin with, taking a few moments to process what was happening before springing into action and putting everything she felt into the kiss; using her lips, teeth and tongue to express her horror, pain, joy and every other emotion that consumed her that day and every day before, ever since she'd met the shaggy detective. Her own hands slid up over toned abs, hardened biceps and broad shoulders before settling at the nape of his neck.

"Deeks," Kensi breathed, pulling back and in desperate need for oxygen. Deeks, in return, moved his attention to his partner's neck, kissing and biting a path towards the agent's ear before pausing.

"I love you," he told her, voice a whisper as if the words themselves could break this fragile moment. "God, Kens, if I'd… If you were still in there, I don't know what I'd do. I love you, Fern." Adding her name, smiling against her skin, Deeks eventually pulled back to face his partner, hands cupping her face.

Kensi tentatively reached up to brush the still damp hair out of her partner's eyes, titling her own head and smiling, tears beginning to prick at the corners of her eyes. Eyebrows furrowed she watched him, stroking her thumb across his cheekbone, trailed her fingers across his jaw, fingertips brushing against his bottom lip, trying to memorise each and every feature, to ingrain this moment in her memory until the end of her days.

"I love you too, Marty."

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**A/N2: So, was that worth the wait? I remember someone asking for some sibling-like interactions between Callen and Kensi, unfortunately, I didn't manage to get it in this chapter but I do have some cute little family moments planned for an instalment in a few days time. **

**Let me know how you found this chapter in a review, also, feel free to let me know if there's anything you'd like to see and I'll see if I have a prompt that works with it. **

**Next chapter, Eric, Nell and Hetty appear, along with the booze. Can't give away more than that... **


	26. Thick

**A/N: More Nell and Eric today, I can't help but write them so often, I'm in love with them. Here's a fluffier chapter because, after looking at my prompt list, tomorrow I'm taking a turn for angst again. May be a little haywire updating this over the next couple of days so please stick with me... **

**Anyway, on with today's installment. Hope you enjoy!**

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**26 - Thick**

_**They swore they'd always be there for each other, and they keep that promise. **_

Alarms and emergency lights graced the Ops centre as the rest of the Mission was a flurry of motion, a full scale evacuation of the building underway.

Eric had found the bug at the same time Callen announced its presence in the sophisticated computer systems that had been updated beyond recognition by the technical operator himself. A custom made, corrupted file containing a bug that had somehow found its way into the mainframe and attacked only certain files, creating havock along the way. The virus was eating away at the centre of operation, stealing Intel on operations and NCIS operatives while also arming the self-destruct that Eric had installed after a similar situation to this, years ago.

A self-destruct that now wasn't answering to the disarming codes that both Hetty and Eric held on to. Hence the emergency evacuation.

"Mr Beale, it's time for us to leave," Hetty called from the door to Ops, watching the part-time surfer run from one work station to another, tapping away at keys and touch screens alike, trying to stop the imminent destruction of the Mission.

"Hetty, I can't," Eric looked up at his boss, pausing long enough to look the older woman in the eye, willing her to understand his need to stay.

"I understand," Hetty sighed, accepting the young man's decision. Difficult as it was, Eric was his own man and right now, no amount of force would remove him from his domain, technology was his forte and this was one battle he would step down from.

Nodding once and thanking the older woman, Eric refocused his attention to the tablet in his hand, simultaneously trying to stop the data-stream leaving Ops and avert or at least delay the self-destruct. If you couldn't stop it, the least Eric could do was to secure the information stored in the systems and give everyone else long enough to get away.

"Hetty, where are you going? Where's Eric?" Nell asked in rapid succession, almost running into her boss at the entrance to the Mission, pacing back and forth across the small flag-stoned entrance.

"Mr Beale has decided to stay," Hetty announced, head held high and taking in a deep breath, trying to maintain a level voice.

"What, no," unable to accept what the shorter woman was telling her to be the truth, Nell made an attempt to bypass her boss and enter the building.

She'd almost made it inside when Hetty's hand darted out to grab her forearm and hold her back, "This is his choice."

"No. He's not staying there, he can't."

"Nell…"

"Hetty!" Nell shouted, interrupting the Operations Manager, unable to bring herself to care that she'd just yelled at her boss, "He needs me. I can't leave him."

Sighing, knowing that the intelligence analyst was every bit as stubborn as herself, Hetty let go of the younger woman's arm, nodding once. "At least try and make it out of there in time, Miss Jones."

Giving a small, half-hearted smile, Nell nodded before turning around and running back inside the building. Taking the stairs two at a time and using the railing to help throw herself round the corner, Nell barely managed to stop herself in front of the doors, skidding at the sudden stop.

There, inside the darkened room was Eric Beale, technical operator and the bravest man she'd ever met.

"What do you need me to do?" Nell asked, picking up a tablet, ready to work side by side with her partner until the end.

"Try and reroute the- Nell?!" Eric shouted, realising who he was speaking to and what was happening.

"Eric, we need to focus if we're going to stop this."

"No, not with you here. Get out."

"I'm not leaving. Not without you, Wolfram..."

"Nell, please," Eric pleaded, hands holding onto his partners shoulders, grounding himself, taking a deep breath before looking into the hazel eyes he knew so well. Letting out a steady exhale, Eric steeled himself to lie or at the very least bend the truth, anything to get his partner to run and leave Ops, "I can disarm the self-destruct sequence, I _know_ I can. So please, _please_ Nell, just go. Get out and into the safe zone."

"You're sure you can stop it?" Nell asked, head held up defiantly, fighting back tears.

"Yes."

"Then it doesn't matter if I stay here or not, right?"

"Dammit, Nell!"

"'Together or not at all'. I thought that was supposed to mean something," Nell spoke, voice dropping in volume as she stared down her partner, reminding him of their conversation from a few nights ago.

They'd gone back to Nell's apartment after a particularly hard case and Eric watched as his partner made a beeline for the rarely visited liquor cabinet, pulling out a bottle of dark rum and taking a long drag before wincing.

"What are you doing?" He'd asked her.

"Getting drunk, what does it look like?" Nell retorted, sarcasm coming easily in an effort to mask the hurt and horror of the case they'd been working on.

Eric, instead of leaving, grabbed two glasses from a cupboard, kicked off his shoes and sat on the carpet by the antique coffee table. "Friends don't let friends get drunk alone," he'd explained to her and so the pair drank shot after shot.

After a comfortable lull in drinking, Eric sat up from his laid down position, head in Nell's lap.

"Time for 'nother one," he announced, watching as Nell clumsily tried to right herself and prop her head up.

"Anyone'd think you're tryin' to get me drunk, Mister Beale," Nell laughed, slurring her words and jabbing her partner in the chest.

"I'm the light-weight here. Maybe you're tryin' to get me drunk!"

"Is it working?" Nell asked, voice dropping an octave as she crawled over and sat in her partners lap, hand reaching up to continue stroking the hair at his temple feeling brave.

"Maybe," Eric smiled, hands settling on Nell's hips, pulling her marginally closer. If anyone asked, this move was to be blamed on his state on inebriation.

"'Kay, let's do this one," Eric said, as he filled up the glasses with a decent amount of alcohol. "Never give up, never give in!"

"Isn't that from a movie?" Nell laughed, taking her glass from her partner.

"Maybe," Eric shrugged, "Still sounds good."

Clinking glasses together before downing the burning liquid, Nell laughed. Leaning back, hooking one arm around her partner's neck for balance, Nell grabbed the liquor bottle from the table.

Lifting the bottle in front of them, moving closer in her partners lap, Nell raised the bottle to her lips.

"Together or not at all," she whispered before taking a mouthful. Lowering the bottle she saw Eric staring at her, eyes wide and fixated on her mouth.

Placing the bottle back on the table, suddenly feeling self-conscious, Nell was shocked to find her partner still watching her.

Raising his hand to cup Nell's rosy cheek, Eric captured his partner's lips with his own, feeling uncharacteristically brave, tasting the liquor on Nell's tongue.

"Together or not at all," Eric agreed, whispering the words into his partner's skin.

Dragging a hand through his hair and bringing himself back in the present, Eric took note of the look on his partners face.

"I remember," Eric, whispered, gaze dropping to his partners lips once more.

"Good, now let's hurry up and stop this," Nell reminded her partner, waving her hand around the room to gesture the panic caused by the self-destruct.

"Okay," the technical operator agreed, watching his partner get to work. It was pointless to try and get Nell to leave now, not when she'd made up her mind as was determined to stay and help him.

Taking his position be the shorter woman's side, Eric knew that there was no place he'd rather be. Through thick and through thin, everything lost meaning when his fiery, red-headed partner wasn't around.

"When this is over, we're going to have to talk," Eric announced, eyes not leaving his computer screen.

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**A/N2: So? How'd you all like this one? I think this one is the furthest down the line in Nell and Eric's relationship/partnership/thing compared to the other Nell and Eric chapters I've written. One day I'l post a comprehensive list for chronological order if you'd all like... **** Also, just putting this out there now, I don't think I'll be writing a part two for this. Might mention it further down the line but that's only because all these instalments are interconnected. **

**Let me know what you thought, ways to improve and what you want more of; I love hearing from you all and strive to reply to your reviews.** **Points to whoever can guess the movie Eric referrence earlier...**


	27. Haste

**A/N: This one is a continuation of part 20 so you may want to go back and reread that, just to refresh yourself. It's not necessary but it does give this chapter a bit more background. Got Neric and hints of Densi and Neeks here so there should be something that appeals to most here. **

**Without further stalling, please enjoy!**

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**27 - Haste**

_**His fingers fumbled with the ropes as he tried to get her untied, scrambling to get her freed before their captor returned. **_

All Eric could hear was the sound of his partner's ragged breathing. The beating had gone on for longer than he could stand and, honestly, Eric wasn't sure how Nell was still conscious. The fact that Nell was still trying to talk to Eric over the comms, to reassure him that everything was okay and feeding him clues as to where she was was almost unbelievable.

But dammit all if Nell Jones wasn't the most amazing woman he'd ever met.

Holding on to that thought, Eric tried to breathe, tried to unclench his fists long enough to send off a quick text to Deeks that the control room Nell was tied up in was empty.

"Sent. Deeks'll be there soon Nell; you just got to hang in there a little longer."

"'M trying," Nell mumbled, feeling blood trail down her chin.

"I know, I'm sorry. We'll get you out of there soon though, I promise," dragging his hand across his face, Eric forced himself to focus on Nell, her voice over the comms rather than the video of her abduction.

The video had been played only twice on the large screen but the images had been playing in his head non-stop since watching three men jump out of a van and grab his petite partner. Callen had promised he'd watch her, promised he'd keep her safe. Rewatching Nell fight tooth and nail with her abductors, seeing them beat her over the head with the handle of a gun, Eric couldn't help the anger that bubbled up inside of him.

Seeing the intelligence analyst fall to the ground before being picked up and thrown into the back of the van, limbs limp and head bleeding, Eric felt his heart stop before starting up again twice as fast. For a brief moment, Eric truly believed that Nell was dead and for the first time in a very long time, Eric felt the urge to physically harm another human being.

Deeks was the only one on the team who seemed to understand, who knew what it was like to have your partner taken from you right under your nose and unable to help. Kensi was still in Afghanistan and Eric knew that the separation was killing Deeks despite the detective's attempts to carry on, business as usual. For this reason, Deeks seemed to be the only one who understood what the technical operator was going through and didn't offer him any platitudes; he simply grasped Eric's shoulder and swore that he would get Nell back. Somehow, despite Callen and Hetty and even Sam assuring him of the same thing, Deeks was the first one he believed.

"Nell, you still with me?" Eric asked, trying valiantly to keep his voice level and light.

"Yeah, why, you got somewhere else to be, Beale?" Nell tried to joke before breaking into a coughing fit and letting out a stream of expletives at the pain in her ribs. Somehow, after that, the effect was lost.

After a few minutes of Nell trying to get her breathing under control and Eric trying to force himself to start breathing, Nell spoke up, voice a whisper over the comms.

"You were right."

No one spoke for a few minutes. The line was open and so the team and Hetty could hear everything that was said but Eric knew, he just knew, that Nell's comment was directed at him.

Giving up on keeping things light, Eric decided against making a joke and went for the direct approach. "What are you talking about?"

"You told me not to go," Nell wheezed, "That I should have stayed at Ops. You were right."

"Nell no, you had to do this. Do I wish you were still here, safe with me? Hell yes. Do I want you to regret your choices later on? Never. Listen to me, Deeks will be there in a minute. He's going to get you out and Callen and Sam are going to take down these sons of bitches and I'm going to be waiting for you, okay?"

"I-"

"No arguments," Eric interrupted. "I'm here for you. We're team Wolfram and _Ununoctium_, I can't leave you."

"Eric, I," Nell paused for a moment before whispering harshly, "There's someone at the door."

"It's going to be okay," Eric told her, not knowing if that was the truth or not. "Deeks, where are you?"

"Right here," the detective announced as the door to the control room burst open.

"Deeks," Nell whispered hints of a smile showing as Eric let out an audible sigh, removing his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Moving quickly, Deeks crossed the room. Pulling out the knife Kensi had left him, the detective made quick work of cutting the zip ties that held Nell in place.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I'll be better when I'm out of here," Nell answered, holding on to Deeks as she tried to stand upright.

The two left the dark room, walking down winding corridors and over bodies that Deeks had dropped during his search for the intelligence analyst as Eric listened over the comms, occasionally redirecting Deeks and Nell.

Finally, reaching the final door, Nell tried to stand on her own and stop leaning on Deeks, moving closer and closer to the final barrier between this hellhole and freedom. Throwing all her weight at the door, wincing at the sunlight and taking in deep lungful's of fresh air, Nell cried out of the comms.

"I'm out. Eric, I'm out."

Eric sighed, letting out all the air he'd been holding in as Callen and Sam confirmed that they were advancing on the building.

Two hours later and the terrorists hand either been taken down or taken in, while Nell sat in a hospital bed, waiting for the release papers. A few cuts, a couple of bruises and a cracked rib or two was all that remained to remind Nell of the days ordeal.

The analyst was just about to lie back and closer her eyes when she heard a commotion in the hallway and a voice that she would recognise anywhere. Standing up and leaving the room, Nell saw Eric fighting with a security guard and two nurses, begging them to let him see her.

"Eric," Nell called out and smiled as the technical operator visibly relaxed.

Seeing that Nell knew Eric, the security guard let go of the younger man. He'd been threatened by Deeks to watch over Nell until she left after the young woman forced the detective to leave.

"Nell, you're okay I-"

"Stop," Nell shouted, interrupting her partner, hands raised to ward him off. "Sorry, you were about to hug me and, well, I'm a little broken right now."

"No you're not," Eric answered, almost instantly.

Nell tilted her head, confused at her partners newfound confidence, prompting him to explain his statement.

"You're not broken, Nell," he told her, moving forward slowly, wrapping his arms around her shoulders gently. Feeling Nell raise her own arms to hug him back, Eric dropped his head to rest on top of hers. Sensing, more than feeling, his partner smile, Eric pulled back and pressed a small kiss to Nell's temple, careful to avoid any bruised areas, before whispering, "You're incredible."

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**A/N2: One of my favourite new phrases, after reading it in a review, is 'dangerous fluff'. I believe this qualifies as dangerous fluff. **

**Anyway, let me know what you thought, I may have a special surprise for the person to leave the 100th review for this fic... **

**Next up, Kensi, Deeks and candy floss... You interested?**


	28. Race

**A/N: I did warn you all that this weekend was going to be hectic... **

**Anyway, here's the 28th instalment, two days late. Part 29 will be uploaded in about ten minutes and part 30 will be later on today. **

**Hope you like this one! **

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**28 - Race**

_**Kensi shook her head as her partner took off running, yelling after him that she wasn't racing. **_

Tuesdays.

To Agent Kensi Blye, Tuesdays were the most pointless days of the week.

It wasn't the start of the week like a Monday, nor was it the end like a Friday. It definitely wasn't a weekend like Saturday or Sunday. It wasn't the middle of the week like Wednesdays and it didn't signify the beginning of the end of the working week like a Thursday.

No, to Kensi, Tuesdays were pointless. Something that her partner knew all too well.

"Are you annoying?" Kensi asked, rolling her eyes and smirking at the shaggy haired detective sat in the passenger seat of her car.

"Kens, that's not a real question."

"Sounded like a question to me."

"Do you even know how to play _'Twenty Questions_'?" Deeks asked, incredulous. For the past hour he'd tried every trick he knew to entertain his partner during their stakeout. Three games of _'I Spy'_, a brief attempt at dealing with Kensi's taste in music, a pack of Twizzlers and two dead-arms later, Deeks was quickly running out of ways to keep his partner from launching into another rant about how bored she was.

"Of course I know how to play a dumb game," Kensi retorted, "I'm just bored sat here watching this guy do nothing."

"Kens-"

"No, he's not doing anything! The guy doesn't even jaywalk, what exactly are we supposed to learn by following this guy?" Kensi interrupted, hitting the steering wheel.

Chancing a look at his partner, turning in his seat to fully watch the agent, Deeks smiled.

"You're hungry!" The detective announced, as if he'd discovered the meaning of life.

"No I'm not," Kensi grumbled, pointedly turning to look out of the window and away from her partner.

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Then why are you staring at that hot dog stand?" Deeks retorted, laughing when Kensi failed to respond. "I can go grab us a couple of subs if you want," the detective offered, leaning to the side to pull his wallet out from his back pocket.

"I can't," the agent mumbled, shifting in her seat once more.

"You weren't serious about that whole diet thing were you?" Deeks asked, realising the heart of the issue at hand.

The previous Friday, Kensi had stormed into the Mission, threw herself into her chair and unwrapped a granola bar with far more force than necessary. Kensi's display of anger in front of food had the rest of the team worried and after a little prodding and persuading from Sam and Callen, Kensi finally explained.

"Remember that guy I was supposed to be meeting last night?" the female agent asked, prompting the guys.

"Yeah," Callen replied while Sam nodded, folding his arms.

"Well we were at this restaurant and the guy kept making these weird comments about my food and what I was eating and so when I asked him about it he asked me if I was worried about getting fat! God, can you believe that?" Kensi all but shouted before attacking the granola bar once more with gusto.

Realising that this was not the answer they were expecting, Sam and Callen bailed out of the conversation, hands raised and laughing while assuring Kensi that she was fine and that her date was a jerk. Deeks, on the other hand, sat at his desk seething. Part of him could see the amusement in the situation, Kensi was gorgeous and to even suggest that she was chubby would be ridiculous; the other part of him just wanted to find Kensi's date and beat some sense into the guy, the old fashioned way, for even suggesting that she was anything less than perfect.

The ringing phone in the glove box distracted Deeks from his thoughts. Shaking his head and trying to focus on what Kensi was saying, Deeks managed to work out that Callen and Sam had shown up to watch follow their suspect, letting Kensi and Deeks take a break from the mundane task.

"Come on," Deeks called, getting out of the car and stretching his legs.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm getting some food, I'm hungry. You coming or what?"

"I'm fine, I'll wait here."

"Wrong answer, Fern," Deeks said before walking over to the driver's side door. Opening the car and practically pulling Kensi out of it, Deeks couldn't help the smile spreading across his face at his partner's half-hearted attempts at stopping him.

"Deeks, I'm serious. I'll eat later."

"Screw him."

"What?" Eyebrows furrowed, Kensi did a double-take looking at her partner, trying to work out what had prompted the comment.

"That guy you went out with, Jeff or Jay or-"

"James," Kensi supplied.

"Or James. Screw him. You are perfect," Deeks told his partner, moving closer to her before reaching up to grasp her forearms as he spoke. "You're perfect just the way you are so don't go changing that for some jerk who doesn't deserve it."

"Okay," Kensi agreed after a slight pause, smiling at her partner.

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Good, because I'm feeling like hotdogs _and_ cotton candy. You in?" Deeks asked, glad to see his food loving partner hadn't taken some jerk's comments too seriously.

"Only if you're paying."

"What, why me?"

"You offered to pay for subs just 20 minutes ago!" Kensi argued, "What changed?"

"Tell you what; last one to the pier loses. Loser pays," already several paces ahead of her, Deeks turned around, arms open, daring Kensi to take the bet as he walked backwards.

"What are you, six?"

"What are you, chicken?" Deeks shot back, mimicking his partner.

Laughing at the detectives childish behaviour, Kensi shook her head, feeling foolish for her earlier thoughts. What did it matter what some guy thought of her, her didn't know her like her partner did.

Her partner who knew, as sure as Kensi hated Tuesdays, that the agent would never back down from a challenge.

"You're on," Kensi shouted, sprinting away from her partner as he raced after her, laughing the whole time.

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**A/N2: I could beg for reviews here or I could just go ahead and upload the next chapter... **


	29. Unveiling

**A/N: Okay, references to chapters 26 and 27 here as well as some awkward Neric flirting. Not too sure about the way I set up this chapter so please let me know what you think of the style of it when you're done... **

**Enjoy! **

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**29 - Unveiling **

_**His jaw dropped when his partner walked down the stairs in that short red dress. **_

Ever since the briefing, Eric had been in a bad mood. His mood had worsened considerably when Hetty had whisked Nell away as part of her plan to catch the latest 'Bad Guy of the Week'.

If you asked Sam or Callen, they'd simply laugh and tell you that Eric was sulking up in Ops like a child whose favourite toy had been taken away.

If you asked Kensi, she'd tell you that it was more like brooding and Deeks would chime in with some obscure pop-culture reference about sparkling vampires that would pass Callen without so much as a second thought and prompt Sam into hitting the detective upside the head.

Eric would argue that he wasn't sulking or brooding or any other adjective that the team would come up with, merely conceding that he was worried about his partner and that it was completely justified given their line of work.

Someone needed to go undercover with Deeks in some new, downtown night club and seeing as Kensi had already been seen by the owner of said club and neither Sam nor Callen were exactly 'date' material for the shaggy detective, Nell had been selected to once again venture out into the field and away from the safety of the Ops centre.

Recently, Eric felt like it had been one undercover operation for the petite red-head after another. He'd half hoped that after the kidnapping and beatings from an operation last year that Nell would stop running head first into danger and instead choose to stay in Ops with him where it was safe. Eric knew that it was futile to hope for Nell to give up on anything and so wasn't surprised when she was asked to help out in the field on a more regular basis; Eric knew that Nell was stronger than a lot of people gave her credit for, her knew she could take care of herself and couldn't help watching the door to Ops every time his partner left the safety of the Mission, waiting for her to return home.

Again, Eric knew this was silly but couldn't help himself.

After the almost destruction of the Mission a nearly two months ago, Eric started losing faith that Ops was as invincible as he'd initially thought. Standing with Nell at the island, fighting the self-destruct and their ever nearing end, Eric accepted that, perhaps, he was wrong and that Ops wasn't the safe haven he thought it was. That didn't stop him from wishing Nell would stay with him, surrounded by wires and monitors and hard drives.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Eric's ever growing feelings for the intelligence analyst and part-time agent. It definitely didn't have anything to do with the few kisses that seemed to occur between them in times of stress that neither Eric nor Nell were willing to talk about.

Eric knows that this argument is weak at best but that doesn't stop him from trying to convince himself that it's true.

"I'm not going to let her go, I promise," Deeks whispered to Eric. The two were sitting in the small seating area, tucked away from the rest of the team who were waiting for Nell. Eric had given a short briefing and checked all microphones, earpieces and cameras three times before the detective had pulled him aside and cut to the heart of the matter.

"I know you'll all be there. I can't help worrying though, you know?"

"I do, believe me," Deeks told the technical operator, looking up at his own partner sat at her desk.

Eric was about to reply when Hetty emerged from the changing area, descending the few steps to the bullpen and called out to the agents.

"Mister Deeks, are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," the detective answered, standing up and walking over to the rest of the teams by the desks.

Eric followed, eyes searching for any sign of his partner.

"Where's Nell?" Callen asked, joining the group.

"Over here," the intelligence analyst called, walking across the stone floor to join the rest of the team before coming to stop beside Eric.

"Nell, you look – uh – you're, um," Eric stumbled and stuttered over his words, unable to take his eyes off of his partner.

Nell stood before the team wearing a dress the Hetty surely must have had custom made given the way the red satin clung to the red-heads curves. Reaching out, Nell held on to Eric to steady herself as she placed a pair of black stilettoes that even Kensi would be envious of on her bare feet.

"You look good," Deeks cut in, trying to save the technical operator's potential blunder.

"Great," Callen supplied.

"That dress is definitely working for you," Kensi joined in, trying to hold in her laughter at Eric's blatant staring, slack jaw and slight blush.

"Thanks guys," Nell said, tucking a stray section of hair behind her ear before launching into questions about who exactly they were after, despite knowing the answers.

Eventually, Callen caught on to Nell's stalling technique and so ordered the team to set off to the club. Kensi brushed past Nell, wishing her luck once more before leaving to join Sam and Callen in the surveillance van while Deeks offered to fetch his car to the front of the Mission, trying to give Eric enough time to say goodbye to his partner without the audience.

Agreeing to the detective's idea, Nell stood alone with Eric in the bullpen, fiddling with an earring, trying to ignore the mounting awkward tension between herself and her partner.

"Amazing," Eric finally blurted out, gaining his partners attention. "You look amazing, Nell," the technical operator explained.

"Thanks."

"I'm serious, you look beautiful," Eric told her, lifting a hand to rub up and down his partner's bare arm. "I'll be listening the whole time, you have your gun and the safe word and- where _is_ your gun?" Eric asked, backtracking.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Nell smirked, feeling brave, practically flirting with her partner.

Smiling briefly before turning serious, Eric moved a stray curl out of his partner's eyes, "Please be careful tonight."

"I'll try."

"Nell-"

"I'll come back, don't worry," Nell promised.

"Okay then, I'll see you later then, I guess."

"I'll be back in a few hours," Nell promised before raising a hand to snake behind her partner's neck, pulling him down to kiss him on the cheek in a spur of the moment action.

Walking away from Eric before he had the chance to fully process what she'd done, Nell couldn't help smiling to herself, unaware that her partner was beaming just a few feet away.

Lifting his hand to brush against his cheek, the technical analyst could feel traces of the dark red lipstick Nell wore as he made his way back up to Ops.

Sitting in his chair, loading up the necessary video and audio feeds Eric wasn't sure what part of this mission he hated the most; the fact that Nell had to go out into the field again or the fact that he had to share her with the world in that dress.

* * *

**A/N2: So, thoughts? Was this one any good? What about the last one? Let me know in a review and I'll get to work with writing part 30... **

**Next up we have _'Toasting'_, including a campfire, team interactions and s'mores... **


	30. Toasting

**A/N: Okay, this is a little later than I'd hoped but I've been battling a killer headache for most of today. Hope you all like this one, there's a little bit of everything in this one and there will be a prequel chapter up in a few chapters time, focusing more on Neric than Densi. **

**I couldn't find any set names for Sam's kids so I named them myself... **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**30 - Toasting **

_**It wasn't her idea to have a campfire in the backyard but she laughed when he fell asleep with his head on her shoulder, halfway through his fourth s'more. **_

Kensi watched as Callen burnt yet another marshmallow, prompting the eight year old Alice to start laughing and call for her brother, Joshua, to fetch another marshmallow for 'Uncle G'. The agent smiled as Sam's youngest child ran across the large lawn, holding the bag of treats tightly in his little fist, before being scooped up by his father.

"Where you going, lil man?" Sam asked the four year old held tightly in his arms.

"Uncle G's being silly, I'm fixing it," Joshua announced, proud to be helping his big Uncle G.

Laughing at his sons antics, Sam set the boy down, warning him to be careful as he made his way over to the empty camping chair next to Michelle.

Kensi couldn't help the involuntary smile at the scene, it was a rare sight to see Sam so at ease but it appeared his children turned the former SEAL into a teddy-bear as Deeks had joked earlier that day. Glancing to her left, the agent saw her partner throwing marshmallows into the air before catching them with his mouth, a trick that both Callen and the two children watched with amusement before Eric joined in. Soon the technical operator and the detective were competing in some butchered version of HORSE, catching the sugary treats as if it were a deadly serious endeavour.

Looking across the fire pit, Kensi saw Nell watching Eric, laughing at the taller man's antics before meeting Kensi's gaze. Sharing a look, silently communicating their mirth at the situation, the two women nodded before turning to look at Deeks as he began coughing and doubled over.

"I win!" Eric shouted, hands flying in the air as Deeks coughed on the marshmallow and Kensi rubbed his back.

"And that," Sam called out, over the sound of the detectives coughing, looking pointedly at his children, "Is why we don't play with our food."

Deeks muttered about how his defeat was unfair while Sam's attention was once again on his wife and children who were attempting to teach Callen how to successfully make a s'more. Nell and Eric sat opposite her, light up in the glow of the open flames, Kensi openly watched the way the technical team looked at each other, Nell's shy smiles and the way Eric would brush back the fringe to see her eyes better as if the action was completely normal and every day between them.

Perhaps it was, Kensi mused; the agent had noticed a shift between the intelligence operative and technical operator but had yet to comment on just what had shifted. Noting the way Nell pulled the oversized hoodie tighter around herself and the way Eric moved marginally closer, Kensi made a mental note to ask about their relationship during their next girls night. Only next time she wouldn't drink so much, Nell may be tiny but the woman could hold her own quite easily. Kensi struggled to remember much of their last night in together; her memories vague, all the agent remembered was an uncomfortable amount of Kenny Loggins, a taxi ride and waking up with sand filling her boots.

"Come on, Uncle G! Even Josh is better at this than you are," Alice shouted, laughing as Callen held up yet another burnt marshmallow. Kensi laughed at the sheepish look on the older man's face, unable to discern if Callen was continually burning the snacks to amuse Sam's kids or if the senior agent really was struggling to make something as simple as a s'more.

Deeks had decided that week in a bar that Callen needed a full childhood experience. They'd been celebrating the senior agent's birthday when he'd made a throw-away comment about receiving exactly six birthday cards in his whole life, most of them from Sam, which lead to an awkward conversation about Callen's childhood. About all the things he'd missed that any other kid would take for granted while growing up. Naturally, this prompted Deeks to organise an entire day of celebration for the older man, giving him everything he'd missed out on in one day. It had taken the detective a while but once he'd managed to get Sam on his side, there was no stopping the 'birthday bonanza' as Deeks was calling it.

The zoo, the pool, a barbeque, a campfire and later, a camp-out; Deeks was determined not to miss anything and had managed to convince Sam to bring his kids along, knowing that Callen held a soft spot for the youngsters, as well as convincing Hetty to join them during the day.

Arching her back and stifling a yawn, Kensi began to feel the effects of the day. It seemed to her that there hadn't been a moments peace since Deeks had picked her up from her apartment at 8AM and she was amazed that Alice still seemed wide awake, even if Joshua had given up the fight against sleep and was now curled up in his mother's lap.

"You tired?" Deeks asked, moving closer, brushing shoulders.

"I'll be fine, what about you?"

"I'm exhausted," Deeks admitted, "I was excited about surprising Callen today and so I didn't really sleep last night."

"It was nice," Kensi told her partner, "I don't think I've ever seen G smile so much."

"He deserved at least one good birthday."

"So what did you do for your birthdays growing up?" Kensi asked, eager to learn more about her partners childhood.

"My mom would always take me to the beach, we'd stay until the last bus came to take us home and she'd buy a huge cake for the two of us. We'd watch movies and eat frosting until we fell asleep. It was nice," Deeks told his partner, a wistful smile in place. "What about you, Fern? Any happy birthday memories?"

"My dad would take me on these camping trips, we'd just head out in the morning and I was sure we'd never find our way back but we always did. I remember when I was thirteen my dad taught me how to shoot," Kensi said with a smile.

The two sat there, recounting happy birthday memories while making s'mores. Kensi would laugh at the way Deeks managed to make such a mess with melted marshmallows and Deeks pretended to be horrified at the amount of chocolate Kensi would eat. The stars shone down above the group as Callen finally perfected the art of making s'mores with Alice half asleep by his side, while Sam took a quick picture of his best friend and daughter smiling, while Nell and Eric sat together content to just be with each other and Kensi smiled as Deeks fell asleep, his head on her shoulder, halfway through his fourth s'more.

* * *

**A/N2: So, thoughts? We're on the home streak now and although I'll be sad to see this piece go, I'd love to hear your thoughts about what you'd like to hear from me after _"Loving You Is Like A Fairy Tale"_... **

**Next up, Oreos and Callen.**


	31. Confiscation

**A/N: Okay, so any of you who follow my Twitter will know that today has been a bad day for me. The past few months have not been kind and it seems like problems have just been piling up higher and higher. I haven't come here for sympathy though, I'm telling you all this so you'll understand if the next couple of chapters are sub-par or late. **

**That being said, I do want to continue with this and so, as always, I hope you enjoy this instalment... **

* * *

**31 - Confiscation **

_**She found his weak spot very quickly; all she needs to do is threaten to take away his cookies. **_

Thankfully, Callen had been managing to sleep quite well recently. Not sure if it was just a natural progression or spending half of his nights with Joelle, Callen lost himself in his thoughts while watching Nell and Eric scouring traffic feeds for the car he'd been trailing and lost earlier, glad to not be having strange thoughts about the pair before him.

Brought back into the present by the sound of Nell laghing and Eric coughing, Callen looked up to see the technical operator slapping his chest, choking on the cookie he was determined to swallow.

"Breathe, Eric. Here, drink this," Nell offered, handing him her cup of coffee, placing a hand on the taller man's shoulder, knowing Eric had finished his own a while back.

Taking several small mouthfuls to clear his throat, Eric winced, putting the cup down by the keyboards and turned to Nell, trying not to distract himself with the way Nell was rubbing small circles into his skin through his shirt with her thumb.

"God, that's awful," Eric said, voice hoarse, glaring at the half empty cup of cold coffee.

"Should I leave you to asphyxiate next time?" Nell asked, smirking at her partner as she picked up the cup, draining the remaining liquid in moments.

"You wouldn't do that to me, would you?" Eric asked, hand flying up to his chest in mock shock. "Don't know how you can drink that stuff though."

"So it's a little cold, I'm not letting it go to waste."

"I wasn't talking about the fact that it's practically frozen, which is awful by the way – how did you even drink that?" Eric asked, getting side-tracked, "No, I was referring to the fact that you drink sugar with a sprinkling of sugar, that can't be good for you."

"Says the guy who just ate four Oreos without pausing," Nell fired back, holding back her smile as best she could.

Giving up on arguing with his partner, Eric turned back to the monitor, shaking his head and smiling. Callen watched the interaction between the two, trying to work out who the intelligence analyst and technical operator reminded him of when Deeks burst into Ops.

"Hey guy – ooh, do we have cookies now?" Deeks asked, cheerful as a small child at spotting the plate of Oreos between Nell and Eric. Reaching forward for one, Deeks was stopped by his partner smacking his hand away.

"Deeks, don't. They're not yours," Kensi scolded.

Laughing at the duo, Callen could help but call out, "How's the training going?"

"I'm confident that I can break him by Christmas," Kensi answered, referring to her attempts to help Deeks curb his impulsivity.

"Come on, Kens, Nell will let me have one," Deeks argued.

"Have you tried asking?" Kensi sighed, rubbing her temples as if she were dealing with a child and not a full grown man while Eric chortled at the interaction.

"Please can I have a cookie, Nellsybop?" Deeks asked, breaking out his puppy-eyes.

"Seeing as you asked nicely, Deeksydoo," Nell answered without missing a beat, offering the plate of Oreos to Deeks while Eric's chuckles turned into a full-blown laugh. Callen's jaw dropped, watching Nell and Deeks interact while Kensi shook her head, smiling at the two interacting like children.

Deeks grinned at his partner, offering her half of the cookie, "You want in on this, Kenzeroo?"

"Don't ever call me that again," Kensi grumbled, grabbing the cookie and throwing it in her mouth whole.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Callen prompted, staring pointedly at the detective and agent.

"Boatshed, interrogation, going. Just came by to see if you or the big guy wanted a go, Sam's been getting antsy without you. I think it could be some separation anxiety thing but-"

"Go!" Callen shouted, interrupting the detective.

"All that power's gone to his head," Deeks mumbled to his partner, "Next time Hetty goes for a vacation, I want to be in charge."

"If you're in charge, I quit," Kensi laughed, leaving Ops with her partner tailing behind her.

"What about you?" Eric asked, facing his partner.

"What about me?" Nell asked, confused at the sudden question.

"What would you do if you were in charge?" The technical operator explained, asking his partner once more, smiling and jostling her shoulder slightly with his own.

"I've never really thought about it," she admitted. "What about you?"

"Close Ops for the day and set up the Xbox on the big screen," Eric answered without pausing to think, happy to see his partner smile at his instant response.

"I think that might be why Hetty didn't leave _you_ in charge," Nell said, laughing.

"You say that now but I know you'd join me," Eric answered, smirking, as he turned back to his monitor.

Peace settled over Ops once more, the only noise the sound of machines humming and keyboards tapping until Eric reached out for the last Oreo.

"What do you think you're doing?" Nell asked, pulling the plate away just before Eric reached it.

"I was going to eat that," he told her, gesturing to the cookie.

"Nuh-uh. This one's mine," she argued.

"What? Why?"

Because I brought them. _And_ I brought the coffee. Your turn to bring snacks," the intelligence analyst responded, still holding the plate away from her partner.

The technical operator turned slightly to face his partner, staring at the woman and fighting against the smile threatening to break out over his face while Nell did the same.

Eventually, Eric gave in, turning his chair fully and leaning in close to his partner, before whispering in her ear, "It's a good job I like you."

Standing up, grinning, Eric brushed a hand across Nell's shoulder and Callen saw the smile on her face increase ten-fold. It was as the technical operator left Ops that Callen realised with a start just who the technical team reminded him of and prayed that he was wrong. It was almost like a game between them, pushing and pulling, each trying to get the upper hand. It was like watching Kensi and Deeks but without as much bickering. Dealing with the agent and detective was hard enough; he didn't need another couple on his hands.

* * *

**A/N2: Okay, the whole 'Nellsybop', 'Deeksydoo' and 'Kenzeroo' thing was dying to be added after seeing RFS's Instagram pictures. Hope you all liked this latest chapter, I'm trying to include more of the team than focusing on just two set characters. Let me know if that's something you're enjoying or if you'd like me to go back to my minimal cast chapters...**

**Next up, Deeks, Sam and Callen have a _'talk'_... **


	32. Third

**A/N: I feel bad about how late this one is. The past few days have been hectic, I've been for interviews, visiting family, auditions, open-mic nights and getting cast in a production. Anyway, the next chapter is half done but I wont be posting it right now, probably post it in a few hours when it's done. I just didn't want to go so long without posting anything. **

**Hope you like this one, didn't get as much feedback for the last chapter as I usually do so please let me know if this is any better... **

* * *

**32 - Third**

_**Sometimes, Deeks feels like an extra wheel when he tags along on missions. **_

"Admit it," Sam laughed, shaking his head at the detective.

"Admit what?" Deeks asked, playing coy.

Giving up on his partner and the detective in the back seat, Callen twisted in his chair to look at the shaggy detective properly.

"You miss her, Deeks. You can say it. We all do."

"It's not that," Deeks responded, shaking his head, "It's not that I don't like working with you guy but you're-"

"We're not her," Callen finished.

"Sorry."

"Don't apologise, Deeks," Callen told the detective as he turned back around in his seat, facing the shop front the men were staking out, "We miss her too though."

After Callen's admission, Deeks was at a loss. Unsure of what to say, the detective remained silent, joining the agents in watching the store for any sign of their suspect of suspicious activity. For almost an hour the men saw nothing and Deeks sat listening to Callen and Sam's banter, accepting a lollipop from the senior agent.

Mesmerised by the ex-SEAL turning his wrapper into an origami frog, Deeks almost missed their suspect, Jonathon Leigh, strolling into the old bookstore.

"Guys, looks like we've got action," Deeks said, gesturing to their suspect walking down the street.

"Eric?"

"Got him, Callen," Eric answered over the comms, "One of you is going to have to get the phone and link me to it."

"What do you mean 'link you to it?" Sam asked.

"The thing's protected," the technical operator said, sighing, "I need a call or a text or something to track back."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Sam asked, looking at his partner.

"That we send in Homeless-Deeks?" Callen asked, half-joking.

"Hey man, not cool."

"No," Sam said over the detective, "More like you have to 'call the wife'."

"Again?" Callen said, mock sighing as he got out of the car, understanding Sam's plan.

Following the two agents into the bookstore, Deeks tried to stay back, only catching snippets of Callen trying to interact with Leigh.

"I just need to borrow it for a second," Callen tried.

"Sorry, I'm busy right now," Leigh answered trying to move past the agent.

"Come on, man," Callen begged, "I just need to call her, I'll be quick."

"Look, I have to go," Leigh responded, barging past.

"Sam, Deeks," Callen alerted his team via the comms.

"On it," Deeks said, moving to follow their suspect, watching Sam move into position to box Leigh in.

Everything seemed to be going to plan until Leigh seemed to notice the ex-SEAL and made a move to run.

"Stop! NCIS!"

"Federal agents!"

"LAPD!" Choruses of warnings were cried out as the team began dodging and weaving through customers and bookshelves to catch the evading suspect. Callen rounded a corner, skidding in front of the door moments before Leigh managed to reach it and Deeks watched as Sam took down the smaller man.

Unfortunately, not before Leigh managed to knock over a bookshelf.

* * *

"Deeks? Deeks? You okay?" Callen's voice called out as the detective felt himself being shaken.

"What's going on?" Deeks asked, blinking repeatedly while sitting up. Reaching up to press a hand to the throbbing in his head, Deeks was shocked to pull it away to find blood.

"You got hit by a bookcase, Sam had to help me pull it off of you," Callen explained. "You okay?"

"Sure, I'll be fine. It's just a scratch, right?" Deeks said, standing up and swaying wildly before falling back down.

"I'd say it's a little more than a 'scratch'."

"I just need to close my eyes for a minute," Deeks said, waving away the senior agents concern and using his hand to shield his eyes from the light, suddenly feeling sleepy.

"Nuh-uh, no way Deeks. Up you get, that needs stitches," Sam said, rousing the detective.

"You sure?"

"Deeks," Callen warned.

"Fine. Stiches, got it."

* * *

"She's going to be pissed," Sam told his partner, walking into the mission. Deeks had quickly waved both the ex-SEAL and the senior agent soon after receiving painkillers.

"When isn't she?" Callen answered.

"Should we tell her?"

"Tell me what, Mr Hanna?" Hetty asked, appearing behind the two agents. "And where is Mr Deeks?"

"There was a bit of an accident," Callen explained, "There was a bookcase and Leigh was running and-"

"Deeks needed stitches," Sam finished, cutting to the chase.

"Ah, I see." Nodding once and leaving it at that, Hetty left the two agents to make a quick phone call.

* * *

After a few hours in the hospital and resorting to using his badge to get out of the hospital, Deeks unlocked the front door to his house hoping for some peace and quiet.

Fate, apparently, had other ideas.

"What the hell happened to you?" Kensi yelled, pushing herself off of the couch to walk over to the injured detective. "Why didn't you call me and- Are you okay?" Kensi asked, noticing the bandage on her partners head seemingly for the first time.

"I'm fine, Kens."

"But your head…"

"Will heal. I'm fine, I promise. How are you?"

"I'll be better when all this is over," she answered, smiling as Deeks dropped down to his knees, kissing her stomach.

"And how are you in there, Princess?" Deeks asked, posing the question to the protruding stomach.

"_He_ is feeling restless," Kensi told Deeks, trying to keep a straight face as he got up from his knees to kiss Kensi properly for the first time since arriving home.

"Still think it's a girl."

"And I know that it's gonna be a boy."

"I miss you," Deeks whispered, peppering kisses across his partners face, meaning more than just missing someone to work with. Sure, Kensi had his back like no one else, he trusted her completely and, honestly, Callen and Sam just didn't cut it as a substitute for the agent in his arms. More than missing his partner though, he missed his best friend, his girlfriend and his everything. He missed not being there to share in the excitement of each and every kick and turn of the baby.

Pulling back, looking at the mother of his child, Deeks couldn't help thinking that right there and then, life was pretty much perfect.

* * *

**A/N2: Should have both 33 and 34 up by the end of today, get back on track with posting chapters. Please review and let me know what you think; without your honest feedback I wouldn't be able to improve... **


	33. Reliance

**A/N: I'm terrible at posting things when I say I will. I'm determined to have part 34 up in a few hours though and, hopefully, should be better at updating the last few instalments. **

**Hope you all like this one, I made it a little longer than some of the recent ones to make up for it being so late... **

* * *

**33 - Reliance **

_**He constantly found himself turning to her when things went wrong. **_

The agents appeared to be in trouble and all Eric could do was run from one monitor to the next, trying to find some way to get through to the team.

They'd been tracking down a man who literally appeared to be a ghost, a man with no name, no face, to trace of DNA or an electronic footprint; a phantom causing havoc and leaving wreckage in his path. The ghost had taken a liking to using explosives as his chosen method of destruction, leaving nothing but a calling card to remind people, innocent and guilty alike, that he was there. A spray-painted, distorted smiling face was the only hint of this phantoms presence.

The team had come close to catching the fiend once but had lost the suspect through their fingertips, being given the choice of catching the bomber, evacuating the school or saving Sam who had been locked in the school's gymnasium. The team only realised that the school was the target when the ex-SEAL caught sight of the black, painted smile plastered on the walls of his daughter's school.

Thankfully, the team had managed to save Sam and get the children out of the school but were unable to locate the bomb. The explosion temporarily knocked out the camera that Deeks was wearing as well as all the comms. For a heart-stopping moment, everything was still, no one dared move. Taking a quick look at his partner, Nell, Eric steeled himself and shot into action, prompting others in the Ops centre to do the same, calling for the agents and fighting to get some form of connection to the team going.

After a few minutes of frantic working, Eric finally managed to get a hold of Kensi who explained that the team would be fine, that the only injuries were Sam's bleeding wrists from pulling at his bindings and Deeks' bruised body after being thrown to the ground in the explosion when he ran to grab a child who had strayed too close to the school.

Nodding once, knowing that the team would be fine, Eric brushed a hand across Nell's shoulder, smiling briefly as she looked up, before moving to sit at his terminal, working to find the fiend.

This was almost four days ago and Eric had barely left the Ops centre, let alone leaving the mission. He'd been home and showered and changed, unable to sleep due to the thoughts running through his head. Hetty had come in the next morning finding the technical operator running around the machines as he did once years ago. Since then, Eric had taken to showering in the changing rooms when forced, sleeping maybe an hour at a time and forgoing eating in favour of working. He blamed himself for not finding the phantom earlier, for not keeping people safe. He blamed himself for the deaths that followed the team's narrow escape and no matter what the team said, no one could dissuade Eric of this notion.

Nell knew that this behaviour wasn't normal or healthy but could do nothing to stop him, only bringing him new clothes and food when he forgot, believing that if she couldn't stop the man, she could at least help him where she could.

Eventually, the team received an anonymous tip that seemed too good to be true; a man, painting an abandoned building with the, by now, well known calling card.

The team raced into action, gathering vests and guns, wasting no time in heading off to the location of the old building, hoping that this time they would be successful and catch the son of a bitch who'd caused so much destruction already.

The team made the journey in record time and immediately split up and began systematically searching the building, At the same time the doors finally closed though, a file was emailed to Eric containing ten video feeds, building schematics and a count-down. Realising only too late what he'd been sent, Eric didn't have a hope of contacting the agents.

The building was a trap and they'd walked straight into it.

"Dammit," the technical operator said, slamming his hands on the worktop before dragging a hand across his face and picking up his tablet.

"What's wrong?" Nell asked, worried about her partners outburst.

Choosing to not answer and rather show his partner, Eric spread the video files across the large screen in the middle of Ops, adding the countdown in the top, right-hand corner.

Barely hearing Nell gasp and Hetty comment on the situation, Eric ignored them both, choosing to continue working. The technical operator tried everything he could to boost the comms signals but was unsuccessful and judging by Deeks and Callen both shouting for himself and Nell, Eric guessed that the team would soon be aware that the comm system was not broadcasting in or out of the building.

Eventually, after working like a mad man, unaware of anything but his own actions and the video feed on the big screen, Eric was startled to see a hand grab his arm. Turn to find the owner of the hand, Eric found Nell looking up at him, cell phone in her hand.

"Deeks still had his mobile," she told him, knowing that the detective rarely ever left it in the car, against Callen's wishes.

Feeling as if, for the first time in days, something was finally going right, Eric smiled at his partner. "You tried calling it yet?"

"It's ringing now."

Surely enough, moments later, Eric could see the detective on the screen reach into his back pocket and hear Kensi scold him.

"Nell? What's going on? Did the comms break or something?"

"Deeks, listen to me," Eric said, making sure the phone was on speaker, "It was a trap, the building, the phone call, all of it. The doors are electronically locked and there's a bomb in the building. You need to find Callen-"

"Whoa there, did you just say there was a bomb?" Kensi shouted, voice distorted through the phone and the monitor in Ops.

"Yes. I have building schematics and Nell can talk you through the directions while I try and open up the doors."

"Eric," Deeks said, voice serious, "Is this going to work?"

"I, I'm not sure. It's all we have right now," the technical operator said, glancing at Nell who was looking up at him.

"Then I guess we have to try it," Kensi sighed moving out of the cameras view on screen in search of Callen and Sam.

The team quickly found each other with Nell's help in attempting to direct them to each other while Eric's focus was split between trying to hack into the building's security, trying to open the electronic door and the large monitor before him displaying the ten separate video feeds.

"How long do we have?" Sam asked over the phone.

"Just under two minutes," Eric supplied, "Sam, whatever you're thinking though, it won't work. The thing has a case over it, it looks like it's been welded on; there's no way you'll get into it in time."

"What do you suggest we do then?" Callen shouted.

"Get to the door," Nell told the team, eyes focused on her partner, giving him a small smile. "Eric can open the doors, right?"

"I've almost done it, I just need a few seconds," Eric told the team, eyes darting to the countdown screen.

Less than a minute to go and the doors were still sealed. Taking a deep breath and one more look at his partner, Eric turned back to his monitor, fingers flying across the keyboard, determined to have the doors unlocked.

Eric worked, vaguely hearing his partner try and navigate the team to the exit; finally with less than 20 seconds left on the clock, Eric broke through the final encryptions and barriers, allowing him to open the door.

"Guys, it's open," the technical operator shouted, grabbing his tablet and standing up, watching the team sprint through the maze that was the abandoned building.

Nell carried on giving directions until her phone cut out at the same time as Eric noted, horrified, that the ten camera feeds that were shown had now cut down to nine. Then eight.

The final countdown had begun.

"Come on, come on," Eric whispered under his breath, watching as the video feeds carried on blinking out of existence, one by one.

With one camera left, trained on the bomb itself, Eric felt Nell's hand slip into his own and their fingers intertwine as the last camera turned off.

Not breathing. Not moving. Just waiting.

"Anybody home?" A voice called over the comms, coughing and hacking shortly after.

"Deeks? You okay?" Eric cried out.

"We made it, Eric. All of us," Callen announced over the feed as Nell threw herself into the technical operators arms.

Breathing in deeply, wrapping his own arms tightly around the red-head, Eric smiled, really smiled, for what felt like the first time in days.

* * *

**A/N2: Well, thoughts? I was blown away at the response to the last chapter so thank you for that one guys.**

**Like I said, I should have part 34 up in a few hours. Featuring Neeks, Densi and possible appearances from the rest of the team... **


	34. Home

**A/N: OKay, so apparently when I said 'in a few hours' what I mean was 'tomorrow because I'm exhausted and fell asleep while typing again and have had a pretty busy day but I'm sure no one will notice'... Sorry. **

**I got a PM from **_XoxMountainGirlxoX_** about a week ago, asking for, **_"...One where Nell calms Deeks down after learning Kensi is missing?"_** I was unable to deny this request, especially when I saw the prompt for this chapter and so here we are. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this instalment!**

* * *

**34 - Home**

_**The concept of 'family' wasn't one that he was familiar with. **_

The beached seemed like a good a place as any to go when Hetty banned him from the Mission. Home held too many memories of the brunette who seemed to haunt his every waking moment, he already spent more time than he was comfortable with admitting at her apartment and so the beach seemed like the only neutral place left to go.

Sitting in the sand, watching and listening to the ebb and flow of the waves lapping at the shore, Deeks closed his eyes; screwing them shut tightly and covering his face with his hands, the detective tried his hardest not to replay the events of the afternoon in his head. Images of aerial feeds of Afghanistan. The look on Granger's face as he announced that the situation was of no concern to parties outside of NCIS, including a liaison officer. The looks filled with pity from Sam and Callen and the way Eric felt the need to glance at him each and every time before sharing another image or information.

The way Hetty spoke to him, as if explaining to a child why their parents wouldn't be able to come home anymore, telling him that Kensi had been taken.

That Kensi Blye, his partner, special agent, professional bad-ass and so much more had been taken over a week ago and no one had bothered to tell him anything about it.

Because there was nothing he _could_ do about it, Hetty told him, telling him to calm down before sending him away. He was too close, she said.

Deeks wasn't sure if the short woman meant Deeks was too close to the operation or to Kensi. Hell, Deeks wasn't even sure there was a difference.

"You okay?" Said the timid voice above him, blocking out the rapidly fading sunlight. Raising his hand to see the speaker properly, Deeks confirmed that Nell had, in fact, tracked him down to the beach to check up on him.

"Who sent you?"

"I, I don't understand."

"Who sent you here, Nell? You don't have to check on me, I'm fine."

"No one sent me," the analyst told him, sitting down beside the detective, "I came because I was worried about you, you ran out of there pretty quickly today."

"I'm fine," Deeks repeated, hoping that if he said the words often enough, he'd begin to believe them himself.

"That's Kensi's line and no you're not."

"I could be," Deeks retorted, giving the red-head a small smile.

"You will be, when we get her back," Nell said softly, tucking her hair behind her ear, watching the detective.

"You think we'll get her back?" Deeks asked, struggling to keep his voice even.

"I do, I have to. If I start to doubt that she'll be anything but fine then I've given up on her."

"Everyone else seems to have given up already," Deeks grumbled, turning to watch the waves once more. "You heard Granger and Hetty; it's been over a week. They're planning on retrieving a body, not rescuing Kensi."

"Screw them."

"Whoa there, Nell-"

"No, Deeks, screw them," Nell said, raising her voice slightly with determination, "Let them give up if they want to, we've made it through worse. This team is the poster for walking miracles," the analyst joked, drawing a laugh from the detective.

"I guess you're right."

"You guess?"

"You _are_ right. When did you get so smart?" Deeks asked, laughing while wrapping an arm around the younger woman's shoulders, feeling a chill now that the sun had all but set.

"I was always this smart; you just don't listen to me."

Laughing at the young woman, Deeks returned to watching the waves, feeling a peace settle over him. He would get Kensi back, there wasn't a doubt in his mind about that.

Deeks would save Kensi and bring her to this very beach and finally, finally, tell her everything. No more holding back, no more fears or miscommunication, just a guy, sitting in the sand with the woman he loves.

Nell sat by Deeks, silently, enjoying the quiet moment before the detective noticed her reaching for her messenger bag, taking a deep breath.

Pulling out one single sheet of paper, she handed it to Deeks.

"Granger said any rescue mission would be NCIS only, Hetty thought you might want this back," Nell said as Deeks unfolded the single sheet and read over it quickly, immediately knowing what he was looking at.

"Do you have a pen?" Deeks asked, ready to sign the document.

"Are you sure?" Nell hesitated, pulling the pen back out of reach slightly. "You can't go back from this, Deeks."

"Three years ago, I told Hetty I wasn't ready. Now, there isn't a damn thing I wouldn't do to get my partner back," Deeks told her, scribbling his signature quickly before handing the paper back to Nell.

"Well then, I should get back to Ops. I can have this finalized by tomorrow morning."

"But how?"

Smirking at the shaggy man sitting in the sand, Nell turned to walk backwards, facing the man, "I have my ways, _Special Agent_ Marty Deeks."

Shaking his head, trying to make sense of how well the words worked together, Deeks stood, brushing the sand from his clothes to look out at the horizon one last time.

Deeks hoped Kensi would understand just how much this gesture meant when he finally found her, knowing that this move could change their working relationship permanently. However, if this could mean the difference in finding his partner or losing her forever, Deeks was willing to take the risk, ready to face the repercussions later on.

As a firm believer in actions speaking louder than words, Deeks' actions were writing a book in Kensi's name…

* * *

**A/N: Well, was that worth the wait? I doubt something like this is likely to happen on the show but it would be adorable if it did. I do love the sibling-like relationship between Nell and Deeks and would like to know what Deeks did with those transfer papers that Hetty gave him. **

**Please review and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see in the final few chapters. Most of them have been outlined but could change or your prompts may be used as one-shot ideas for work outside of the fic. **

**Next up, one of my favourite chapters so far, Eric's backstory. **


	35. Luck

**A/N: So, I've been ridiculously excited about this one since I saw the prompt and came up with the initial outline for the chapter. However, seeing as "_Loving You Is Like A Fairy Tale_" is coming to a close, I've been trying to plan out what I'm going to do next and because of that, I left out a lot of**** what I wanted to put in here and so I'm not completely happy with this instalment anymore. **

**Alas, it was late and I couldn't bear to try and fix this chapter anymore so here we are... **

**Also, before anyone tried to say that I'm spelling 'sceptical' wrong today, I'm British which means for the most part I use English spellings. Most of the time, I do change my spellings depending on how I'm writing but typing a K instead of a C felt wrong to me. That goes with other words, such as colour and favourite… I say this now only because someone mentioned that I has misspelled certain words in previous chapters. **

**Anyway, hope you enjoy this! **

* * *

**35 - Luck **

_**Eric was sceptical when he found out about his new assignment, but now he thinks it's the best thing that's ever happened to him.**_

Eric was six years old when he learnt, first hand, what it meant to try and protect someone and fail. His mother never could stand up to his father and despite everyone telling him that he was so smart and would go far, Eric didn't realise that a lanky six year old didn't stand a chance in a fight against a forty year old man who spent his free time fighting with everyone and everything.

At the young age of thirteen, Eric first picked up a gun and fired it. His step-father kept them locked up in a safe in the master bedroom. Steve, his step-father, for some reason honestly believed that something as simple as a computerised, keypad lock would deter him. After breaking into the safe and sleeping with the cold metal under his pillow for almost a month, Eric finally used the gun.

By sixteen, Eric had run away from home, studying anything and everything to keep himself safe; taking self-defence classes and being surrounded by middle-aged women laughing at his and pulling at his cheeks, joining a gym and leaving with a black-eye after the punching bag swung back and knocked him off of his feet. Eric quickly learnt that fighting, at least physically, wasn't his forte. He was taller than most opponents but lanky and uncoordinated, his limbs too long for him to fully control despite his efforts.

After few courses at the community centre, sneaking in at the back as he couldn't really afford the weekly sessions, Eric discovered he had a gift, a certain affinity for technology. While everyone else was struggling with the basics of the hulking machines, Eric began looking for shortcuts and cheats. Within a few weeks, Eric successfully hacked into his schools brand-new, computerised scoring system and changed his grades to all A's.

Then next week, Eric received a full scholarship to college.

During the days, Eric worked as hard as any of the students, learning and absorbing everything that was taught to him until his tutor suggested that perhaps the gangly, bespectacled boy would better suit something more complex, something that would push the young man.

Eric agreed, willing to move up, to experience new challenges and continued working, usually surpassing all the other students, even with his new, heavier workload. It wasn't until after college that his professor approached him with his first, extra-curricular load of work. A hypothetical situation, he told Eric. 21 years old and not knowing any better, Eric Beale sat down and began working, hacking into a local bank and transferring funds into an untraceable, off-shore account.

It wasn't until Eric received his share of the transaction that he realised what he had done.

Three years later, Eric Beale, master hacker and technology God, was finally caught. Hands in the air and his gun still tucked into his jeans, Eric followed the agents, getting in the car and obeying orders before arriving at an old, worn down boatshed.

In exchange for his cooperation, Eric would not be thrown into jail; they offered him a contract. They would exchange one prison for another; instead of carting him off to the nearest medium secure facility he was to be chained to a desk owned by some fake sounding organisation for ten years, running back and forth between the computers and becoming a glorified errand boy.

* * *

"Is this really what you want in life?" Eric asked the teen sat before him.

Seven years after Eric was brought to the old, rickety shack, he'd returned. The only difference being that instead of being interrogated and offered deal after deal, this time Eric was here to talk sense into some young, wannabe hacker who'd almost crippled the NCIS database without realising it.

"Man, can't be all that bad. You seem cool with it," the kid, Aaron, answered.

"There's nothing cool about being stuck here," Eric told the boy, face dropping and becoming serious. If Nell and the team hadn't been watching Eric's first foray into interrogation, they wouldn't have been able to believe that they were watching the same goofy technical operator that they all knew and loved. "I'm trapped here; I don't know what they're going to do when this damn contract is up. Maybe they'll lock me up or shoot me. The guys in that team out there, the ones who brought you in, let me tell you, they have no problem in killing people."

"For real?" Aaron asked, sounding worried for the first time.

"Hell yes, for real!" Slamming his fists down on the table, Eric stood up, running his fingers through his hair. "Worst part about it is, Aaron, I still call those people my friends. All I ever wanted was to help people, that's what they do. Neither of us are gat at it though, I hurt a lot of people and they have a tendency to leave behind bodies but we do it to protect people. Difference between you and me is that I know why I did the things I did, can you honestly say the same?"

"I just wanted…"

"What? What did you want?" Eric asked, leaning forward.

"I just wanted someone to notice me," sighing, and putting his head in his hands, Aaron began to breakdown.

"It's gonna be okay, kid," Eric said, reaching out to pull the boys hands away from his face. "Things happen for weird reasons; if I hadn't been caught then I would never have made it here, I never would have stopped running and found a place to call a home. Maybe I was lucky to be found when I was; maybe this was just the Universe telling you to stop?"

"Was it worth it?" Aaron asked, sniffing loudly and looking up at the technical operator.

"Honestly," Eric started, thinking about the team, about the number of people he'd helped save. Thinking about the life he'd left behind and the life he could now call his own, about the feel of the sea and the crash of the waves and the feeling that everything was just right when a certain red-head looked at him and smiled.

Looking up and grinning, knowing that the words were true before he said them, Eric looked at Aaron, "Honestly, I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me."

* * *

**A/N: Well? How bad was it? Was it acceptable? I had so much more I wanted to include but I guess I'll have to save that because, BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, I will be starting a new multi-chaptered story after_ LYILAFT_ has finished. Updates will most likely be once a week and much longer than the chapters in this piece. There will be mostly Neric but some Densi and a lot of team in there so you may want to follow me as an author so you don't miss that one. I will also, probably, proof-read those chapters too so you're definitely being spoilt now. **

**Hope you enjoyed this instalment, more will be uploaded eventually... **


	36. Glowing

**A/N: I am aware that this is not my best and is later than I had hoped but I thought that I should at least try and get something up. My schedule with work and University has been crazy recently. I've just been cast in a play as well as a film and so read throughs and rehearsals are taking over my time right now. **

**Regardless, here is some Deeks-centric fic with appearances from the whole team, enjoy!**

* * *

**36 - Glowing **

_**"Dudes, you're glowing!" Eric remarked, looking back and forth between them. **_

For the most part, the Mission had been pretty quiet operations wise. The occasional shooting, maybe there was a missing marine but with nothing else to occupy the agents time, Hetty had begun expecting paperwork.

More paperwork than Deeks believed was humane.

Honestly, who needed to read eight sheets of paper only to sign a form for the right to fire a weapon out of a moving vehicle?

After losing several rounds of waste paper basketball with Sam and Callen, exhausting his paper aeroplane making skills trying to make Kensi smile and bugging Nell to the point where the red-head had threatened bodily harm if the detective continued his behaviour, Deeks had run out of things to do other than the aforementioned paperwork.

It was for this reason the Deeks quite literally jumped when Hetty asked the team to make contact with a man the elder woman referred to as 'The Hermit', failing to notice the looks on the other team members faces.

Three hours later, Deeks felt like he was beginning to understand why Sam and Callen were laughing so hard as he practically ran out of the Mission and into the scorching sun, dragging a reluctant Kensi behind him. Shaking his hand through his hair once more, Deeks tried to cool himself down as the summer sun beat down upon the part-time surfer and his partner.

Two hours after that, Deeks began rethinking all his life choices and whether Hetty would notice if he went surfing for a little while. The detective had been told to meet this reclusive fellow on the beach by the street vendor, surely he could sell going surfing as part of his cover until their contact arrived. Kensi had been flitting back and forth from one of the vendors buying cold drinks all afternoon, surely he deserved some fun.

Finally, almost six hours after originally leaving the Mission, Deeks returned, holding a small envelope addressed to Hetty.

Twisting his neck from side to side, skin feeling tight, Deeks relished in the cool air inside the old building, gingerly taking of his sunglasses and watching his partner do the same.

Tight feeling, red skin, visible marks from where the sunglasses had covered their faces; there was no doubt in the matter. Kensi and Deeks had been sunburnt. Badly.

For a brief moment, neither partner spoke; instead, staring at each other and praying that they didn't look the same. Sam laughed. Callen laughed. Hetty shook her head and walked away.

It wasn't until Deeks heard the tell-tale slapping footwear descending the stairs that the detective finally looked up at the technical operator.

Barely containing his mirth at the sight of the agent and detective, Eric grasped the banister for support, willing himself not to laugh at the vision before him. "Dudes, you're glowing!" Eric remarked, looking back and forth between them.

It appeared that the ex-SEAL by this point could no longer contain himself. Slapping Deeks on the back, not sympathetic at all to the wince from the detective at this move. "I know what you mean, Eric, they're looking a little rosy to me."

"Shiny," Callen offered.

"Sun kissed?" Nell suggested having descended the stairs from Ops to see what all the fuss was about.

"This is all Deeks' fault!" Kensi yelled, gesturing at her partner, "Some just couldn't stay in Ops and had to go meet the Hermit!"

"How was I to know the guy lived up to his name?" Deeks defended.

"It's still all your fault," Kensi grumbled, touching the reddened skin and wincing.

Rolling up his sleeves, Deeks grimaced at the visible line where his shirt had covered his arm throughout the day. The detective didn't know whether he was more embarrassed or annoyed that he'd allowed himself to get sunburnt; not once had Marty Deeks ever come home with anything more than slightly red cheeks after a day at the beach. The self-proclaimed surfer was mortified that he'd failed to notice the suns effects.

"I believe this may help," Hetty announced, placing a small green bottle on Sam's desk, in-between both Kensi and Deeks.

The operations manager barely had chance to move out of the way after setting the bottle down before the partners were fighting to reach the bottle.

_Perhaps next time_, the wise, shorter woman thought, _Mr Deeks would actually choose to do the paperwork intended_.

* * *

**A/N2: And so there you go. I doubt anyone else out there burns as easily as I do but this is what came to mind when I saw the prompt. **

**Hopefully the next chapter will be a bit longer for you all and that I'll finally stop posting late chapters. I said I would finish this in forty days and so that's what I'm going to do. The final chapter for** _Loving You Is Like A Fairy Tale, Let's Start With Chapter One _**will be posted on Friday, after that, I may take a short break before starting anything else so please bear with me. **

**I'll leave you all with the prompt title for the next chapter, make of it what you will: _Reverse_. **


	37. Reverse

**A/N: I am terrible at updating regularly right now. The good thing is I'm aware of this so I know what I need to work on. **

**Hope you all like this one, we're going back in time a little with this one, sort of a back ground story for Nell. Vivian and Allison are OC's and as much as I usually hate seeing OC's in FanFiction, I felt the need to provide Nell with a sounding board of sorts and so I based the characters on the people I turn to when in need, my best friend and my younger sister. As much as they annoy me, they have their uses and in the past few months they've been absolute Godsends so yeah... **

**Thanks to _ncisnewbie_ for the name **_**Vivian**_** and for the 100****th**** review to this fic. I passed that milestone a while back but I'd planned this chapter out back then. Thanks to everyone who reviews, whether you review after every chapter as I know some of you do or if you've only reviewed once. Each and every message from you makes writing this that much better; I'm an entertainer by nature and so to hear you all enjoy ****"**_Loving You Is Like A Fairy Tale, Let's Start With Chapter One_**"**** makes me ridiculously happy so, once more, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. **

**Anyway, hope you all enjoy this instalment! **

* * *

**37 - Reverse**

_**Her world has turned completely on its head since she was brought into LA. **_

20 years old, the world at her feet and with nothing else to do in her small hometown, Nell Jones sat on her bed, between her best friend and younger sister.

The trio had been lamenting their choices and planning the future while sprawled across Nell's bed ever since Allison had barged into the small flat owned by the college student and her best friend with another recruitment letter. Vivian, the young red-heads best friend since childhood, was throwing marshmallows in the air before catching them with her mouth while Allison, Nell's younger sister, hugged a pillow to her chest.

"When will you be leaving?" Allison asked, brushed the dark hair back from her face.

"I don't know," Nell answered, shrugging.

"Do you want to leave?" Vivian asked, hoping for some form of response.

"I don't know."

"Do you have any idea what you want to do?"

"I don't know!" Nell cried, throwing herself forward, contorting her body to practically fold in half. "I only just graduated here and people are hounding me again. I just want to take a break and not be me but I can't even do that."

"Nell, you're smart, deal with it!" Vivian all but yelled, pulling the red-head up into a sitting position. "You knew that this would happen one day so what are you going to do?"

"I don't-"

"So help me God, if you say you don't know," Vivian warned, red lips pursed as she shrugged off the small cardigan she was wearing. The summer heat in Nell's room was almost unbearable but the trio were determined that Nell would pick a course for the future and follow it by the end of the day.

For what felt like months, Think Tanks and agencies had been trying to contact the red-head, to recruit her for her vast intellect. Vivian had known the shorter red-head for year and so Nell's intelligence was nothing new to the blonde; what was new was the fact that Nell had flown through her two chosen majors at college in just under two years and had graduated with the class above her.

"Do you want to leave us?" Allison asked from her spot on the bed. The younger Jones sister briefly unfurled her legs before re-crossing them, staring at her sister.

"Ally…"

"You could either stay here and do nothing with that super-brain of yours," Allison interrupted, attention split between her sister and pulling at the throw pillow she was holding, "Or you could go out there and do something. Your choice."

"Weren't you the one upset at the idea of me leaving earlier?" Nell asked, shocked at the younger woman change of heart.

"I _don't_ want you to leave Nell, if I could keep you here forever I would. This is nice, this is comfortable. We could stay in your flat and eat ice-cream and you could be miserable. I don't want you to be miserable, Nell. I want you to be happy."

"I want to be happy too," Nell said, eyes watering at the unexpected kind words from her little sister.

"Then where do you want to go?" Vivian asked once more, voice soft.

Taking a deep breath, looking between her little sister and best friend, Nell knew she had to make the right choice for her own sake and not for anyone else's benefit. With this thought in mind and glancing between her best friend and little sister, Nell made up her mind.

"I should leave," the red-head whispered, shocked at how true the words sounded out in the open. "I want to stay here but I can't, you know that though, don't you?" Nell asked, taking in the unsurprised looks on the other women's faces.

"You had to make the choice yourself," Vivian answered, reaching out and rubbing the shorter woman's arm.

"What about the rent?" Nell asked, panicked, "We still have the lease on the flat until the end of next year; I can't just leave you alone with that. I should"

"It'll be fine," Vivian assured the red-head, laughing at the frenzy that Nell had worked herself up into.

"I start college in the Fall," Allison spoke up, "If you still need a roommate…"

"See," Vivian said, "Everything will work out in the end. Now, we need to pick _where_ you're going now that you've decided to leave us."

Laughing at her best friend, Nell bumped the taller woman's shoulder with her own, glancing at her sister to make sure she was happy with the decision, before picking up the list of offers that the group had written earlier.

For a while the group worked in harmony, debating the pros and cons to each offer, until the phone rang and Allison answered it.

"It's Nate," the younger Jones stated, handing the phone to Nell.

"Tell your Prince Charming I said hello!" Vivian shouted, knowing full well that Nate could hear her through the speaker.

"He's not my 'Prince Charming'!" Nell hissed, covering the phone with her hand and swatting away the marshmallow Vivian threw at her, laughing as she left the room.

"Maybe that's another reason to leave," Vivian pondered aloud, ever the eternal optimist, "Maybe your real Prince Charming is out there," she stated, gesturing wildly.

"Hey Nell, how's the decision making going?" Nate asked over the phone, knowing how indecisive the red-head could be at times.

"Well, so far I've decided I should try getting out of small town life so we have a start," Nell joked, pressing the phone between her ear and should as she hoisted herself up to sit on one of the kitchen counters.

"I was hoping you'd say something like that. There's someone I know who'd like to offer you a job, something you'd enjoy."

* * *

The years passed by quicker than Nell could believe. Joining NCIS. Returning home for Vivian's graduation and being there for her sister as she dropped out of college, more interested in traveling. Leaving everything behind in Washington and moving to L.A. and joining the Office of Special Projects. Meeting a team full of agents and detectives and technical operators that the she would one day call her family. Receiving postcards from all over the world from Allison and laughing at her little sister's latest antics. Phone calls with Vivian whenever there was chance, listening to her best friend rant about her later project or plan. Saving the world or at the very least L.A. once or twice.

Her world has turned completely on its head since she was brought into L.A. and if she could go back in time five years and high-five herself then she would. Moving to LA was probably the best decision she'd ever made.

Finally finding a moments peace at the end of a busy week, Nell sat down and dialled the phone number she had memorised oh so long ago smiling at the familiar voice of reason on the other end of the line.

"So, Nell, how are things going in the City of Angels?" Vivian asked over the phone, "How's Prince Charming?"

"For the last time Vivi, Eric is _not_ my Prince Charming!" Nell protested, trying to convince herself as well as the other woman that the words were true.

"I didn't say Eric in particular," Vivian laughed as Nell shook her head. Some things never changed.

* * *

**A/N2: Well, thoughts? I enjoyed playing around with the characters but I'd love to know what you all thought of it. **

**Next chapter: Neric, a swimming pool, Densi and a sweatshirt. Interested? **


	38. Pool

**A/N: Okay, this is a prequel of sorts to chapter 30 so you may want to reread that to refresh it in your memories before reading this. Joshua and Alice, Sam's kids, make another appearance today as well as Nell's dog who finally has a name! A real one! **

**Hope you like this one, took me a while to find an ending that I liked... **

* * *

**38 - Pool**

_**The only bright side about being shoved into the water is that Eric gave her his jacket. **_

"Nell, come on! Deeks'll kill me if we're late," Eric shouted through the bedroom door before returning to the living room and sitting on the couch. One hand wrapped around his coffee cup and the other petting Nell's dog that after nearly a four months had been named Russell.

Apparently, the technical operator didn't have to wait too long until his partner appeared in the living room, wearing a red dress and sandals, the red-head looked beautiful to Beale. Though, if he were honest, Eric couldn't remember a time when he didn't believe Nell to be the most beautiful woman he'd even met.

"Why did Deeks have to meet so early?" Nell complained, sitting on the arm of the couch next to her partner, poking the dog affectionately with her foot.

"Something about finding extra time for monkeys… I didn't ask," Eric added, seeing his partner's confused look.

Reaching for the technical operator's cup, Nell finished the rest of his coffee, barely wincing at the bitter taste, deciding the need for caffeine was too great. Seeing Eric shaking his head at her actions, Nell leant backwards to place the empty cup behind her, trusting that Eric would raise a hand to steady her before sliding from her perch and into her partners lap.

Eric had grown used to these intimate moment, knowing that Nell craved affection and their stolen touch as much as her did. Lifting his arms, Eric didn't have to wait long until Nell had nestled herself into his chest, head resting on his shoulder and hand wrapping around the arms that now encased her.

"Still, sleeping in would be better than monkeys," Nell mumbled and Eric couldn't help but laugh at the pout he could see on his partners face.

"I know, that's why I offered to pick you up. At least I can function in the morning."

"I can function!"

"Without caffeine?"

"I could. What, I could?" Nell defended as Eric laughed at her response.

"Come on, sleepy-head. We're late," gesturing to the clock, Eric waited for Nell to release him and steady herself before standing and ushering the smaller woman out of the apartment, promising Russell they'd be back later.

* * *

"Deeks, we live in L.A.! The beach in _literally_ fifteen minutes away, what possibly possessed you to hire a swimming pool?!" Kensi shouted, barely able to believe the man who stood before her. Eric turned away, trying to hide his smile at the exchange between the partners; Eric knew that Kensi had feelings for the shaggy detective turned agent, strong feelings that was honestly trying to work through after her return from Afghanistan. He also knew that Deeks' feelings went far beyond simply caring when it came to the female agent, Nell confessed that Deeks had all-but admitted he loved Kensi during a stake-out which is why he wasn't too worried about the argument between the pair.

"Didn't you ever go to a pool party as a kid?" Deeks spoke, throwing his arms out, "This is Callen's first real birthday. We've been to the zoo, the park, now we're going to have a pool party! Get the barbeque going, play music, have a drink, have _fun… _Can you do that Kens? Can you?" Deeks asked, smiling and poking his partner in the stomach until she swatted him away.

"You're impossible," Kensi sighed, attempting to walk away from the detective when he pulled her to him, attempting to throw her into the pool, fully clothed.

Unfortunately for Deeks, Kensi caught onto this idea pretty quickly and planted her feet firmly on the floor, leading Deeks to overbalance and let go of his partner, flailing as he fell into the pool but not before grabbing an unsuspecting leg, unwilling to go down alone.

Eric watched for a moment, too shocked to move as Callen and Sam started laughing and Alice and Joshua threw themselves into the pool full clothed too, much to Michelle's chagrin.

"You okay there partner?" Eric called out to a particularly wet Nell Jones.

"Funny, Beale, real funny."

"Come here," Eric said, moving over to the intelligence analyst, standing firmly before reaching out a hand to help pull Nell up. A hand which Nell accepted quickly and, to Eric's shock, without trying to pull him into the pool beside her.

Pulling his partner out of the water and quickly with ease, Eric tried not to notice the way that Nell's waterlogged clothes clung to each and every curve of the petite woman's body. A man would have to be blind to not notice how stunning his partner was and Eric knew first hand from all the stolen touches and hugs and nights spent purely sleeping with her in his arms that his partner had a body to die for.

Seeing her like this was almost too much for Eric to deal with, he was only a man after all and Nell had a way of making him feel like a teenager with a crush.

Turning away quickly and trying to hide the blush that was threatening to cover his cheeks, Eric quickly let go of his partner.

"You're, erm, wet."

"I know," Nell laughed, "This stupid dress won't stop sticking to me now," the red-head complained, pulling the fabric away from her stomach and inadvertently giving Eric a much better view of her chest.

Moving quickly, Eric pulled off his shirt revealing his grey t-shirt underneath, and handed it to the smaller woman. "You can wear this if you want, at least until your clothes are dry," he said, trying hard not to look down.

"I have some shorts around here that should fit you," Michelle called out, seeing the awkward situation Eric and Nell were backing themselves into. "Perks of having kids, you tend to pack spare clothes for everything thing," the woman joked, offering the clothing to Nell.

Nell disappearing into the small changing rooms, taking her bag with her and Eric was thankful for the brief reprise; watching Joshua flailing in the water, soaking 'Uncle G' and Alice practising diving into the deep end of the pool with Kensi while Deeks swan under the surface, pretending to be a shark, Eric smiled, thanking whatever deity existed for the small family he'd found over the years.

Looking up again, hearing the changing rooms open, Eric watched as his partner emerged, tight, cycling shorts barely visible underneath the striped shirt that fit Eric fine but dwarfed his partner.

Eventually, Nell had made her way over to where the technical operator stood and thanked him for the shirt, fingers fiddling with the rolled up sleeves that still passed her wrists.

After assuring her that it was no problem and mentally adding that it was probably necessary, Eric and Nell fell into a comfortable silence until a cry came from the pool.

"Nell, you not coming in?" Kensi shouted.

"I'll just be a second!" Nell replied.

He'd forgotten that at some point in the day he would see Nell in a swimsuit. In his panic to get her to cover up her wet clothes clinging to her curves, Eric had forgotten that he would be seeing those curves first hand and in the flesh today. Feeling his mouth go dry, he struggled to swallow, Adam's apple bobbing up and down as Nell slowly unbuttoned his shirt.

Eric could have sworn he saw a hint of mischief pass over his partners face as she pulled off the shirt he'd given her, revealing a bright red bikini top.

"She's trying to kill me," Eric whispered, running a hand through his hair before pulling off his shirt, throwing his glasses on top of his bag and jumping into the pool after his partner, smiling.

* * *

**A/N2: As always, I await your thoughts. Not long to go now and everything that has been so far is coming to a close, tied up neatly in a bow for chapter forty... **

**Anyway, up next we see the Mission being invaded, kick-ass Nell and Deeks is shot? Again?... **

**Bet you wont want to miss that.**


	39. Escalating

**A/N: Look at me, posting the right chapter and it's still on the right day. I have about 10 minutes before 12 so it's only just within the 24 hour boundary but I'm still quite proud of it... **

**No more stalling, here it is. The penultimate instalment. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**39 - Escalating **

_**Nell ran through the Mission, glancing over her shoulder for her pursuer, wondering when a routine day had turned into this. **_

Shadows crawled up the walls and the hallways grew longer and try as she might, Nell couldn't escape the sounds of her assailants behind her.

The Mission had been compromised.

Sam and Callen had been taken down in the field and were in the hospital.

Kensi had refused to return to NCIS after the events in Afghanistan despite Deeks' begging and pleading.

Hetty was nowhere to be seen and Deeks had been taken down the moments to men walked through the door.

Nell could still feel the detectives' blood, warm and wet, soaking through her clothes as she ran through hallways. The sight of the detective pushing her down and taking the bullets that were meant for her was ingrained in her memory alongside the lifeless eyes of her part-time partner before she began to run; twisting and turning and fighting her way through the corridors, never stopping to breathe or to look back, trying to find her way to Ops. To Eric.

Falling to the floor, face meeting the cold concrete faster than Nell thought possible, the red-head felt tears fall down her face as she looked down to see the bones in her ankle pushing against the skin in an unnatural manner. Realising that if she didn't move and quickly that her life would be over, Nell attempted to pull herself into the burn room, ignoring the way her skin tore open as she dragged it across the floor.

Finally getting inside, Nell rushed to pull herself up, using shelves and worktops to support her weight as she attempted to barricade the door before falling to the floor. Sliding down the wall, knowing that there was no cover to hide behind, Nell trained her gun on the door, holding back tears that were begging to fall.

Seeing shadows beneath the doorway, Nell could barely breathe, mentally counting the seconds until they looked inside and found her.

Nell had made it to three.

Dark figures, masked men, reached into the room, arms stretching out to grab her as the sound of laughter echoed in her head, Raising her gun and steadying her aim, Nell shot the assailants, once, twice, three times in the chest but the bullets did not meet their intended marks.

Looking down, Nell watched in horror as three bullet wounds appeared in her chest, blood pouring out of the holes in her skin before finding their way to the floor.

Looking up one last time, Nell watched as one of the dark figures raised a gun, aiming it directly at her. This shot would not miss and try as she might Nell was unable to close her eyes; all she could see was the barrel of a gun.

And then it went off.

* * *

"Nell, Nell! Come on, Nell, wake up!" Eric cried out, shaking the red-head from her slumber. He'd woken only moments before to the sounds of crying from the woman beside him and watched as she became more and more agitated. Realising that the analyst was caught in a nightmare, Eric tried to wake her up, shaking and calling for her to just open her eyes.

"Eric?" Nell asked, voice hoarse from screaming.

"I'm here, I'm here," pulling her to him, and stroking her hair, Eric repeated the mantra, interspersing it with brief kisses to her temple, shoulder, hair and anywhere that he could reach. "It's going to be okay, it was just a dream," he promised.

Feeling more than hearing the woman hiding in his arms speak, Eric tried to pull back slightly, brushing the hair back from her face and asking Nell to repeat herself.

"It wasn't a dream," Nell began, leaning into the hand that Eric had used to brush the tears from her cheeks with, "It was a nightmare."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Eric asked knowing what his partner would say and was disappointed when, without missing a beat, Nell responded with a firm 'no' and attempted to bury herself within his arms once more.

Knowing better than to push, Eric stood up, moving away from the bed and promising Nell that he wasn't going anywhere. Opening the curtains wide, he moved back to the bed, sliding in behind Nell so that she could see the windows as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Do you want me to open the window?" He asked, breath ghosting across Nell's neck.

"No, this is good," the red-head answered, pulling Eric's arms tighter around her. The technical operator had learnt that in the rare event of a nightmare, Nell would stare out of the window, watching the stars and sky until she fell back to sleep.

She'd tried to explain it to him once, saying that seeing the sky stretch on for what looked like forever made her feel small and, ergo, her problems smaller. Eric didn't question the woman's logic, just held her tighter and ended up making a habit out of staying awake beside his partner until the terror had subsided and sleep claimed her once more.

"You weren't there."

"What?"

"The nightmare, you weren't in it," Nell explained, taking in a deep breath. "Deeks was shot, again. He died this time and I fell and there were men chasing me and there was so much blood and I-"

"You're safe." Eric interrupted, leaving no room for argument in his voice. "You're safe Nell, Deeks is fine and you're still here with me and it's okay, I promise."

Pulling Nell tighter to him, Eric couldn't help but wish there was a way to stop Nell's nightmares. For almost two weeks the night terrors had consumed the woman, ever since Deeks had protected the analyst in the field and taken a bullet to the shoulder for Nell. Eric couldn't help but thank the detective turned agent for protecting his partner and couldn't help the guilt plaguing him for feeling glad that it was Deeks that had been shot and not Nell

Deeks had told him that he would have done it again and Eric didn't doubt him. He knew the bond between Nell and the shaggy detective and was glad that she had someone like Deeks watching out for her when he couldn't.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, the technical operator saw that Nell was already half asleep in his arms.

"Goodnight Nell," he whispered, pressing a chaste kiss to her temple before settling back down in bed, pulling the shorter woman closer, eradicating all pretences of space.

* * *

**A/N2: Okay. Well, angsty start, fluffy finish, everyone happy? No-one died either, I'm on a roll... **

**I'm stalling now because when I'm done here I'm going to start typing chapter forty and I honestly don't think I'm ready for the end of this story... **

**Not sure how much I can give away about tomorrow. There will be characters from previous chapters making appearances, team mentions, Neric, Densi, flowers, and tears. That last one might just be me though. **

**Please remember to review, it takes little to no time and makes me insanely happy. **


	40. Confound

**A/N: This is it. The final chapter of this series and I have honestly loved each and every minute of it. When I started I wasn't in a good place but now, I'm dealing with everything; I'm finally seeing the silver lining I've spent so long searching for. That being said, I am genuinely sad to see this story come to a close. I could carry on but all good things must end somewhere and this just happens to be where this piece must end. **

**I would never have completed this piece if it wasn't for the kind words of support and praise in each and every review that I have received. I would like to publically thank those who have reviewed, be it only once or for each individual instalment and so, to the following, thank you: **Bamie02**, **blue dogs rock**,** somuchmorethanpartners**, **XoxMountainGirlxoX**,** ncisnewbie**,** RedYellowPinkGreen**,** StormwalkerofLorien**,** bookdiva**,** booklover51089**,** DensiLovestory **,** MidnightMandarine**,** zoe elizabethx**,** superMartinha**,** Blondy411**,** BlackBeltGirl67**,** Jclimactic**,** Tilly33**,** infallibleflower**,** Arminia**, **Littlemissjellybabies**,** hummingbird98**,** ToOldToShip**,** RedneckGeek

**The beginning of the chapter does jump around a little but if you stick with it, I think you'll enjoy it.**

**And now, without any more delays, after forty days, almost 150 reviews and over 50,000 words I would like to present you with the final ever chapter of _Loving You Is Like A Fairy Tale, Let's Start With Chapter One..._**

* * *

**40 - Confound **

_**It makes no sense how well they work together when they're all so different. **_

"_Deeks, is that camera even on_?"

"_Yes, now just shut up and read the cards_!"

"_Don't you tell me to shut up, I'll_-"

The screen that had been showing cut to a black screen for a few moments and Nell watched Kensi elbow the shaggy detective in the ribs, both still smiling regardless as they watched the projection screen before them intently.

Turning back to face the screen, Nell saw the screen change to a view of Callen looking awkward in front of the camera but looking straight down the lens, making Nell feel like the senior agent was looking at her. "_I'm really not sure what to say. I've never seen two people so insync before_."

The film cut to a shot of Sam Hanna, sitting by his wife with Joshua in his arms and Alice on his knee. "_If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here. They're heroes without trying._"

"_Nell is one of the best friends I've ever had,_" Kensi announced from the projector screen.

"_What about me?_"

"_Shut up, Deeks."_

"_Eric is… Well, he's Eric_," Callen laughed on screen, "_He's smart and determined and if I trust him. Completely. I can't say that about a lot of people either._"

"_You look at it like this, all anyone else sees is a boy and a girl, working side by side and helping save the day,_" Sam said on screen, leaning forward, towards the camera, "_Thing is, they're so much more than that. They're partners._"

"_And Nell,_" Callen spoke, hands folded over his chest, "_Well, she's incredible. You put them together and it just works and you sit there watching them, trying to work out what it is about them that just clicks_."

"_Nell's like family to me and Eric's been good to me too. Helped me more than most; he has a good heart and that's why I'm trusting him_," Looking directly at the camera, Nell watched as Kensi's eyes watered on the screen.

"_When you look at it objectively, it shouldn't work,_" Nate announced on the screen, "_Their behaviour, their personalities, they clash. If it was anyone else then this – this partnership, for lack of a better term – wouldn't work. But somehow, it does. They're like puzzle pieces, kind of. You look at it all separately and nothing fits together but you start placing the pieces down and you start seeing glimpses of what could be, if you just keep working at it._"

At this point, Nell was unsure if she could hold in the tears, watching the screen, not taking her eyes off of the video that Deeks had made. Reaching out to take her partners hand, knowing the Eric was sat beside her as always, Nell lets out a gasp, smile wobbling as tears threatened to fall.

"_Hi there, Butterfly,_" David called out from the screen, the video not quite matching up with anything so far, "_I made a couple of videos in case anything ever happened to me, best to be prepared and all that. You'd kick my ass if you knew I ass doing this right now._" Nell couldn't help the noise that fell from her lips, caught in between a laugh and a sob, as tear began rolling down her face. "_Anyway, if you're watching this then you're probably getting married at some point either today or in the near future; I asked Ma to save these videos for you for certain dates so don't get mad at her for not showing you this sooner. I want you to be happy, Butterfly, I want you to have everything you deserve and more in life and I love you. Always have, always will,_" David finished, the image of Nell's dead brother phasing into one of her younger sister.

"_I'm literally sat like three seats away from you right now,_" Allison said on screen, earning a laugh from the red-head, "_But I just wanted it on record that I'm happy for you and Eric; you deserve a happy ending._"

The screen was quickly filled with another image, one of a man around the same age as Eric that Nell recognised as Steven, Eric's childhood best-friend. Unable to fully understand the message he was sending and knowing that it was intended for Eric more than herself, Nell was content to revel in the emotions threatening to overwhelm her while managing to make out certain words and phrases, "_You love her_,", "_Good luck_," and, "_Take care._"

The image on screen was quickly replaced with Eric's sister, Cara, "_You win, Eric. Now quit wasting time with this video and kiss the girl_!"

"_Mr Beale and Miss Jones have a unique bond. One that I have never been able to define, nor will I attempt to do so now. What I do know is that he is there is not a thing that one wouldn't do for the other and I would like to personally wish both Nell and Eric all the best in their lives together._"

"_It's all about trust_," Sam stated, "_He trusts her, not a doubt in my mind, and I know Nell trusts him too. That's why _I _trust that they'll make it work._"

"_You take all those pieces of the puzzle and most people will just see pieces, nothing more, nothing less_," Nate said. "_But Nell and Eric? They'd see art, they'd make masterpiece just to prove that it could be done, they'd look beyond the here and now and see the possibilities._"

"_I've never met two people who were meant for each other as much as Eric and Nell. They make each other better, they fix each other and make each other better and don't even realise it,_" Kensi finished.

"_Looks like you found Prince Charming after all,_" Vivian smirked on screen before the image faded to black.

The room was still dim and Nell took the opportunity to dry her eyes quickly, letting out a shaky breath before turning to her left, searching for Eric.

Apparently Nell wouldn't have to search for long before the lights began to illuminate the room and music began playing.

Deeks and Kensi sat to her left, beaming at her as the detective motioned for her to look forward as he put and arm around the agent of his dream.

Standing not more than 10 feet away was Eric, shifting his weight from foot to foot, clearly nervous. Lifting out a hand to her, Nell understood the invitation to join him where he stood.

Laughing, feeling tears begin to well up in her eyes once more, Nell slowly made her way around the table and the small wedding party to join her husband.

Watching and waiting for Eric to say something, anything, Nell stopped just before her partner.

"'I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self-respect'," Eric began, stating the words with such passion that Nell knew he had to have rehearsed his speech. "'And it's these things I'd believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything' and I didn't write these words. Another man did. Someone who was good with words and, Nell, you know I'm bad with words but if there's one thing I'm good at, just one little thing, then it's loving you. I will always love you, Nell. I don't know when it started, I don't think it will stop but I will always, _always_, love you. I promise."

Nell could barely breathe. This man stood before her, so full of love and adoration and it was all directed at her; to say it was overwhelming was putting it mildly.

"We have faced good times and bad times," Nell spoke, taking Eric's hand in hers, "We've fought and cried and I've almost lost you too many times to count. You're my constant, you're the one thing that makes sense and stays the same in everything that we do and I love _you_, Wolfram, for everything that you are and everything that you're not and everything that you could be. That _we_ could be."

"I'm glad you said that, Mrs Beale," Eric laughed, letting out a breath he wasn't aware of holding as he pulled Nell to him, kissing her with all he was worth as cheers and catcalls broke out around them.

Nell ignored the shouts from Callen and Nate to 'be careful with their little sister' and Sam and Deeks cheering for Eric 'finally getting the girl' in the detectives words. Nell didn't even register Kensi pulling Deeks down, telling him to leave them be, all Nell could focus on was the man standing before her, holding her up and kissing her until she was senseless.

Pulling back, Nell smiled, feeling tears flow freely down her cheeks.

Eric reached out to wipe the tears away, cupping her face as he did so and catching sight of his watch.

"Well then, Mrs Beale," Eric laughed, still amazed that his firery red-headed partner, that the bravest, boldest and most beautiful woman he had ever met was now officially his wife, "It's been almost four hours since we tied the knot. Any regrets?"

"Not even one," Nell answered without hesitation, pulling Eric in for another kiss.

This was her fairy tale, the kind she had denied dreaming about as a child.

And this was just the beginning.

* * *

**A/N2: Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that that's a wrap... **

**Wow, we started with chapter one and now, here we are, at the end of chapter forty and at the beginning of a whole new story for our agents. **

**I'll be taking some time out to relax and maybe write a few one-shots before starting anymore multi-chapter stories. Don't fear, I have a few more Neric ideas tucked away in my brain, this isn't the last you've seen from me. **

**I'd like to thank you all, once again, for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following this piece, you have no idea how much it means to me. **

**But now, it's time to go our separate ways. This isn't a 'goodbye' per say, more of an 'au revoir'...**


End file.
